Andreu Català Mallofré

Quantity of Movement as a Measure of Engagement for Dementia: The Influence of Motivational Disorders

Engagement in activities is crucial to improve quality of life in dementia. Yet, its measurement relies exclusively on behavior observation and the influence that behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) have on it is overlooked. This study investigated whether quantity of movement, gauged with a wrist-worn accelerometer, could be a sound measure of engagement and whether apathy and depression negatively affected engagement. Fourteen participants with dementia took part in 6 sessions of activities: 3 of cognitive games (eg, jigsaw puzzles) and 3 of robot play (Pleo). Results highlighted significant correlations between quantity of movement and observational scales of engagement and a strong negative influence of apathy and depression on engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that quantity of movement could be used as an ancillary measure of engagement and underline the need to profile people with dementia according to their concurrent BPSD to better understand their engagement in activities.

Who is a Better Tutor?: Gaze Hints with a Human or Humanoid Tutor in Game Play

In this paper, we present a study that analyses the effects of robot or human gaze hints on peoples choices in a card game. We asked human participants to play a matching card game in the presence of a human or a robotic tutor. Our aim was to find out if gaze hints provided by the tutor can direct the attention and influence the choices of the human participants. The results show that participants performed significantly better when they received gaze hints from a tutor than when they did not. Furthermore, we found that people identified the tutor hints more often in robot condition than in human condition and, as a result, performed significantly better.

Experience the world with archetypal symbols: a new form of esthetics.

This paper reports on the results of a user-based evaluation that was conducted on a 3D virtual environment that supports diverse interaction techniques. More specifically, the interaction techniques that were evaluated were touch, gestures (hands and legs) and the use of a smart object. The goal of the experiment was to assess the effectiveness of each interaction modes as a means for the user to complete common tasks within the application. A comparison is attempted in order to provide an insight to the suitability of each technique and direct future research in the area.According to the theories of symbolic interactionism, phenomenology of perception and archetypes, we argue that symbols play the key role in translating the information from the physical world to the human experience, and archetypes are the universal knowledge of cognition that generates the nbackground of human experience (the life-world). Therefore, we propose a conceptual framework that depicts how people experience the world with symbols, and how archetypes relate the deepest level of human experience. This framework indicates a new direction of research on memory and emotion, and also suggests that archetypal symbolism can be a new resource of aesthetic nexperience design.

Modelling engagement in dementia through behaviour. Contribution for socially interactive robotics

In this paper, we present a novel tool to measure engagement in people with dementia playing board games and interacting with a social robot, Pleo. We carried out two studies to reach a comprehensive inventory of behaviours accounting for engagement in dementia. The first one is an exploratory study aimed at modelling engagement in cognitive board games. The second one is a longitudinal study to investigate how people with dementia express engagement in cognitive games and in interactions with social robots. We adopted a technique coming from Ethology to mould behaviour, the ethogram. Ethogram is founded on low level behaviours, and allows hierarchical structuring. Herein, we present preliminary results consisting in the description of two ethograms and in their structuring obtained through thematic analysis. Such results show that an underlying structure of engagement exists across activities, and that different activities trigger different behavioural displays of engagement that adhere to such a structure.

Social HRI for People with Dementia: One Size Fits All?

Motivational and emotional disorders (i.e. apathy and depression) are very frequent in dementia and might greatly affect the positive psychological state experienced during social HRI. We conducted a six-weeks study in two nursing homes comparing the affective states that two playful activities, board cognitive games and social robot play (Pleo), were able to elicit in people with dementia. Results show that a significant increase in pleasure (positive affect) is present in the robot condition when participants are considered in their totality, but once they are grouped based on the presence of motivational and emotional disorders, the pleasure experienced in the robot condition is significantly lower in the group with such disorders.

Directing attention through gaze hints Improves task solving in human-humanoid interaction

In this paper, we report an experimental study designed to examine how participants perceive and interpret social hints from gaze exhibited by either a robot or a human tutor when carrying out a matching task. The underlying notion is that knowing where an agent is looking at provides cues that can direct attention to an object of interest during the activity. In this regard, we asked human participants to play a card matching game in the presence of either a human or a robotic tutor under two conditions. In one case, the tutor gave hints to help the participant find the matching cards by gazing toward the correct match, in the other case, the tutor only looked at the participants and did not give them any help. The performance was measured based on the time and the number of tries taken to complete the game. Results show that gaze hints (helping tutor) made the matching task significantly easier (fewer tries) with the robot tutor. Furthermore, we found out that the robots’ gaze hints were recognized significantly more often than the human tutor gaze hints, and consequently, the participants performed significantly better with the robot tutor. The reported study provides new findings towards the use of non-verbal gaze hints in human–robot interaction, and lays out new design implications, especially for robot-based educative interventions.

Electrodermal activity: Explorations in the psychophysiology of engagement with social robots in dementia

The study of engagement is central to improve the quality of care and provide people with dementia with meaningful activities. Current assessment techniques of engagement for people with dementia rely exclusively on behavior observation. However, novel unobtrusive sensing technologies, capable of tracking psychological states during activities, can provide us with a deeper layer of knowledge about engagement. We compared the engagement of persons with dementia involved in two playful activities, a game-based cognitive stimulation and a robot-based free play, using observational rating scales and electrodermal activity (EDA). Results highlight significant differences in observational rating scales and EDA between the two activities and several significant correlations between the items of observational rating scales of engagement and affect, and EDA features.

Gaze-Based Hints During Child-Robot Gameplay

This paper presents a study that examines whether gaze hints provided by a robot tutor influences the behavior of children in a card matching game. In this regard, we conducted a within-subjects experiment, in which children played a card game “Memory” in the presence of a robot tutor in two sessions. In one session (Help), the robot tutor gives gaze hints to help children find matching cards and, in the other session (No_Help), the robot tutor does not provide help to the children. Gaze hints involved looking toward the correct matching cart. We analyzed the child-robot interaction regarding execution performance, gaze behavior, and level of engagement. Children performance was measured using the number of trials and overall time used to complete the game. We found that children used significantly fewer trials in the Help condition than in the No_Help condition. In addition, there were more instances of mutual gaze in the Help condition than in the No_Help condition. These findings suggest that designing a robot with dynamic gaze increases the effectiveness of the robot tutor as a helping agent.