Can a robot teach me that? Children's ability to imitate robots.

Journal: Journal of experimental child psychology
Published Date: Dec 7, 2020

Abstract

Commensurate with constant technological advances, social robots are increasingly anticipated to enter homes and classrooms; however, little is known about the efficacy of social robots as teaching tools. To investigate children's learning from robots, 1- to 3-year-olds observed either a human or a robot demonstrate two goal-directed object manipulation tasks and were then given the opportunity to act on the objects. Children exhibited less imitation from robotic models that varied with task complexity and age, a phenomenon we term the "robot deficit." In addition, the more children engaged with the robot prior to administration of the imitation task, the more likely they were to replicate the robot's actions. These findings document how children are able to learn from robots but that ongoing design of robotic platforms needs to be oriented to developing more socially engaging means of interacting.

Authors

  • Kristyn Sommer
    Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. Electronic address: kristyn.hensy@uqconnect.edu.au.
  • Virginia Slaughter
    Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia.
  • Janet Wiles
    ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia.
  • Kathryn Owen
    Early Care and Education, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
  • Andrea A Chiba
    Department of Cognitive Science and Program in Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
  • Deborah Forster
    Contextual Robotics Institute and Design Lab, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
  • Mohsen Malmir
    Soroco, Boston, MA 02110, USA.
  • Mark Nielsen
    Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa.

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