Exploring young children´s attributions through entertainment robots

Author

Okita, Sandra Y. ; Schwartz, Daniel L. ; Shibata, Takanori ; Tokuda, Hideyuki

Author_Institution

Sch. of Educ., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

13-15 Aug. 2005

Firstpage

390

Lastpage

395

Abstract

Children have "animistic intuitions" that they use to attribute intelligence, biology, and intentions. Robotic animals take on similar form and motion as real animals, and can exhibit intelligent behaviors. Two studies explore whether children apply animistic intuitions to robotic animals, and whether these attributes vary by the child\´s age and the robots\´ behaviors and appearance. A total of ninety-three children 3- to 5-years old participated in one of two experiments. Results show that 3-year-olds attribute a range of animistic properties to robots, whereas older children reduce their animistic attributions towards robotic dogs in piecemeal fashion according to specific questions and perceptual attributes.

Keywords

man-machine systems; mobile robots; psychology; animistic intuitions; children; entertainment robots; human robot interaction; robotic animals; Animals; Animation; Cognitive robotics; Educational robots; Evolution (biology); Intelligent robots; Medical robotics; Pediatrics; Psychology; Robot sensing systems;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2005. ROMAN 2005. IEEE International Workshop on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9274-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROMAN.2005.1513810

Filename

1513810