Astrid M. Rosenthal-von der Pütten

An Experimental Study on Emotional Reactions Towards a Robot

Although robots are starting to enter into our professional and private lives, little is known about the emotional effects which robots elicit. However, insights into this topic are an important prerequisite when discussing, for example, ethical issues regarding the question of what role we (want to) allow robots to play in our lives. In line with the Media Equation, humans may react towards robots as they do towards humans, making it all the more important to carefully investigate the preconditions and consequences of contact with robots. Based on assumptions on the socialness of reactions towards robots and anecdotal evidence of emotional attachments to robots (e.g. Klamer and BenAllouch in Trappl R. (ed.), Proceedings of EMCSR 2010, Vienna, 2010; Klamer and BenAllouch in Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI-2010), Atlanta, GA. ACM, New York, 2010; Krämer et al. in Appl. Artif. Intell. 25(6):474–502, 2011), we conducted a study that provides further insights into the question of whether humans show emotional reactions towards Ugobe’s Pleo, which is shown in different situations. We used a 2×2 design with one between-subjects factor “prior interaction with the robot” (never seen the robot before vs. 10-minute interaction with the robot) and a within-subject factor “type of video” (friendly interaction video vs. torture video). Following a multi-method approach, we assessed participants’ physiological arousal and self-reported emotions as well as their general evaluation of the videos and the robot. In line with our hypotheses, participants showed increased physiological arousal during the reception of the torture video as compared to the normal video. They also reported fewer positive and more negative feelings after the torture video and expressed empathic concern for the robot. It appears that the acquaintance with the robot does not play a role, as “prior interaction with the robot” showed no effect.

Investigations on empathy towards humans and robots using fMRI

Although robots are starting to enter into our professional and private lives, little is known about the emotional effects they elicit. In line with the Media Equation, humans may react towards robots as they do towards humans, making it all the more important to carefully investigate the preconditions and consequences of contact with robots. Based on assumptions on the socialness of reactions towards robots, we conducted a study that provides further insights into the question of whether humans show emotional reactions towards a robot and whether these reactions differ from those towards a human. To explore emotionality in human-robot interaction we conducted an fMRI study (n=14). Participants were presented videos showing a human, a robot and an inanimate object, being treated in either an affectionate or in a violent way. Self-reported emotional states and functional imaging data revealed that participants indeed reacted emotionally when seeing the affectionate and violent videos. While no different neural activation patterns emerged for the affectionate interaction towards both, the robot and the human, we found differences in neural activity when comparing only the videos showing abusive behavior indicating that participants experience more emotional distress and show negative empathetic concern for the human in the abuse condition. This was supported by similar findings with regard to participants self-reported emotional states.

The Uncanny in the Wild. Analysis of Unscripted Human–Android Interaction in the Field

Against the background of the uncanny valley hypothesis we investigated how people react towards an android robot in a natural environment dependent on the behavior displayed by the robot (still vs. moving) in a quasi-experimental observational field study. We present data on unscripted interactions between humans and the android robot “Geminoid HI-1” in an Austrian public café and subsequent interviews. Data were analyzed with regard to the participants’ nonverbal behavior (e.g. attention paid to the robot, proximity). We found that participants’ behavior towards the android robot as well as their interview answers were influenced by the behavior the robot displayed. In addition, we found huge inter-individual differences in the participants’ behavior. Implications for the uncanny valley and research on social human–robot interactions are discussed.

Neural correlates of empathy towards robots

We conducted an fMRI study to investigate emotionality in human-robot interaction. Subjects (N=14) were presented videos showing a human, a robot and an unanimated object, being treated in either an affectionate or a violent way. Violent interaction towards both the robot and the human resulted in similar neural activation patterns in classic limbic structures indicating that both the robot and the human elicit similar emotional reactions. However, differences in neural activity suggest that participants show more negative empathetic concern for the human in a negative situation.

Individuals’ Evaluations of and Attitudes Towards Potentially Uncanny Robots

In the present work we provide an overview and categorization of explanatory approaches for the uncanny valley effect and present an empirical study. Against the background of the uncanny valley hypothesis, the study utilized qualitative interviews in which participants were presented with pictures and videos of potentially uncanny humanoid and android robots to explore participants’ evaluations of very human-like robots, their attitudes about these robots, and their emotional reactions towards these robots. In this regard, the influence of the robots’ appearance, movement and the context of HRI were examined. Results showed that, contrasting the hypothesis, participants reported not only negative, but also positive emotional reactions towards the possibly uncanny robots. The robots’ appearance was of great importance for the participants, because certain characteristics were equalized with certain abilities, merely human appearance without a connected functionality was not appreciated, and human rules of attractiveness were applied to the android robots. The analysis also demonstrated the importance of the robots’ movements and the social context they were placed in. The importance of two possible causes and explanations of the uncanny valley, namely uncertainty at category boundaries (cf. Ramey in Proceedings of views of the uncanny valley workshop: IEEE-RAS international conference on humanoid robots, 2005; Proceedings of the ICCS/CogSci-2006 long symposium “Toward Social Mechanisms of Android Science”, 2006) and subconscious fears of being replaced (cf. MacDorman & Ishiguro in Interact Stud 7(3):297–337, 2006) were explored in this work. On this reflective level of evaluation we found some support for the assumptions that participants experienced uncertainty how to categorize android robots (as human or machine) and that some (but not all) participants felt uncomfortable at the thought to be replaced by robots.

Using Linguistic Alignment to Enhance Learning Experience with Pedagogical Agents: The Special Case of Dialect

Empirical research showed that verbal and nonverbal alignment occurs in HCI in the same way as in HHI [1-3]. Against the background of similarity attraction [4], a “we-feeling” within dialect-origin [5] and different investigations regarding speaking variations [6,7], the present study analyses the effect of the dialectical language usage of a virtual pedagogical agent within a tutoring setting and the ramifications for the learning situation. An experimental study with a between subject design (N=47) was conducted in which the virtual interlocutor explained and subsequently questioned the subjects about medical topics in either dialect or High German (via Wizard-of-Oz-scenario). The results show that linguistic alignment occurs in both conditions, but even more in interaction with the High German-speaking agent. Furthermore the dialect-using agent was rated as more likable while there were no effects with regard to social presence. Implications for theory and development are discussed.

Robots or Agents – Neither Helps You More or Less During Second Language Acquisition

When designing an artificial tutor, the question arises: should we opt for a virtual or a physical embodied conversational agent? With this work we contribute to the ongoing debate of whether, when and how virtual agents or robots provide more benefits to the user and conducted an experimental study on linguistic alignment processes in HCI in the context of second language acquisition. In our study (n = 130 non-native speakers) we explored the influence of design characteristics and investigated the influence of embodiment (virtual agent vs. robot vs. speech based interaction) and system voice (text-to-speech vs. pre-recorded speech) on participants’ perception of the system, their motivation, their lexical and syntactical alignment during interaction and their learning effect after the interaction. The variation of system characteristics had no influence on the evaluation of the system or participants’ alignment behavior.

You and your robot companion — A framework for creating robotic applications usable by non-experts

In this paper we present a system for all and sundry to create robotic applications which is characterized by adaptivity on different levels. First, users are enabled to create their own applications (e.g. play a card game with robot) by the usage of a decision making framework for robot companions. Second, within a created application the robot itself adapts its behavior via user feedback based on a decision making algorithm (e.g. teach the robot a card game based on user feedback). In dependency of the users expertise, he or she has different possibilities of enhancing the robots capabilities. Especially for the non-expert user a tool has been developed which provides a graphical user interface to configure applications. The usability of the tool has been evaluated with 5 participants of the age group 40+. The results show that the technical requirements to include non-experts are fulfilled by the framework but also reveal ways to improve the tool, such as the placement of the assistance mechanisms offered to the user.

Great minds think alike. Experimental study on lexical alignment in human-agent interaction

Abstract Based on first results on lexical alignment towards computers demonstrating that human users adapt their word choice to that of a computer, it was tested whether participants will also adapt to a virtual agent within a tutoring setting. In an experimental between subjects design (N = 40) participants were presented with information on three medical topics by a virtual agent either using lay language or technical terms. Results show that participants aligned to the word choice of the agent in both conditions, while there were no effects for perceived competence and likeability. Zusammenfassung Vor dem Hintergrund erster Ergebnisse zum lexikalischen Alignment gegenüber Computern, in denen gezeigt werden konnte, dass menschliche Nutzer sich in ihrer Wortwahl an die des Computers anpassen, wurde geprüft, ob es auch zu einer entsprechenden Anpassung an einen virtuellen Agenten im Rahmen eines Tutoring Systems kommt. In einem experimentellen between-subjects Design (N = 40) präsentierte eine virtuelle Agentin den TeilnehmerInnen unter Nutzung von entweder Laienausdrücken oder Fachbegriffen Informationen zu drei medizinischen Themen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die TeilnehmerInnen sich in beiden Bedingungen an die Wortwahl der Agentin anpassen, es kommt aber nicht zu unterschiedlichen Zuschreibungen hinsichtlich Kompetenz oder Sympathie.

The Effect of an Intelligent Virtual Agent’s Nonverbal Behavior with Regard to Dominance and Cooperativity

In order to design a successful human-agent-interaction, knowledge about the effects of a virtual agent’s behavior is important. Therefore, the presented study aims to investigate the effect of different nonverbal behavior on the agent’s person perception with a focus on dominance and cooperativity. An online study with 190 participants was conducted to evaluate the effect of different nonverbal behaviors. 23 nonverbal behaviors of four different experimental conditions (dominant, submissive, cooperative and non-cooperative behavior) were compared. Results emphasize that, indeed, nonverbal behavior is powerful to affect users’ person perception. Data analyses reveal symbolic gestures such as crossing the arms, stemming the hands on the hip or touching one’s neck to most effectively influence dominance perception. Regarding perceived cooperativity expressivity has the most pronounced effect.