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Article published In: Child-Robot Interaction: Design, Evaluation, and Novel Solutions
Edited by Marta Couto, Shruti Chandra, Elmira Yadollahi and Vicky Charisi
[Interaction Studies 23:2] 2022
► pp. 243–288

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Exploring space for robot mistakes in child robot interactions

ORCiD logo with link | KTH Royal Institute of Technology
 | Centre INRIA de Bordeaux
 | SCIP
 | University of Zurich
 | Sorbonne Université
 | Constructor University
Published online: 24 March 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.21034.sto
Abstract
Understanding the impact of robot errors in child-robot-interactions (CRI) is critical, as current technological systems are still limited and may randomly present a variety of mistakes during interactions with children. In this study we manipulate a task-based error of a NAO robot during a semi-autonomous computational thinking task implemented with the Cozmo robot. Data from 72 children aged 7–10 were analysed regarding their attitudes towards NAO (social trust, competency trust, liking, and perceived agency), their behaviour towards the robot (self-disclosure, following recommendations), as well as their task performance. We did not find quantitative effects of the robot’s error on children’s self-reported attitudes, behaviour, or task performance. Age was also not significantly related to either social attitudes or behaviours towards NAO, although there were some age-related differences in task performance. Potential reasons behind the lack of statistical effects and limitations of the study with regards to the manipulation of robot errors are discussed and insights into the design of future CRI studies provided.
Article outline
  • Exploring space for robot mistakes in child robot interactions
    • Trust
      • Self-disclosure
      • Selective trust
    • Pro-social attitudes
    • Perceived agency
  • Current study
  • Implementation of CozmoNAOts: A computational thinking task
    • Software architecture
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Procedure
      • NAO’s turn
        • Error manipulation
      • Child’s turn
    • Measures
      • Self-report questionnaire
      • Behavioural measures
        • Preference test
        • Self-disclosure
      • Task performance
      • Semi-structured interview
      • Parent questionnaire
    • Hypotheses
  • Results
    • Child questionnaire
    • Preference test
    • Self-disclosure
    • Task performance
      • Following instructions
      • Number of turns
      • Mistakes made
      • Recollection of Cozmo’s path
    • Semi-structured interview
      • Social trust
      • Competency trust
      • Agency
      • Liking
    • Parent questionnaire
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Author declarations
    • Conflict of interest statement
    • Author contributions
    • Data availability statement
    • Ethics
  • Notes
  • References
References (80)
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