Abstract
Social robots are increasingly being used to encourage social, emotional and cognitive growth in children. However, in order to establish social and bonding interactions, social robots need to be able to exhibit adaptive strategies to keep children engaged and interested. Adaptive strategies of a social robot based on children’s age and gender are motivated by the comprehensive theory on gender development. Given the strong influence of gender in children’s cognitive development, the experiment first examined the responses of 107 children, ages 5–12, whether synthesized voice evokes gender associations in children. The results suggest that young children (ages 5–8) are not able to successfully attribute gender to the robot in correspondence with the synthesized voice. In addition, we explicitly investigated children’s preferences for the robot’s gender, and the results were contrary to our expectations: young children indicated their preference for a robot with a matching gender while there was no difference in preferences for a robot’s gender by older children (ages 9–12).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 687-700 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | International Journal of Social Robotics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 1 2018 |
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Keywords
- Adaptive strategies
- Age
- Child–robot interaction
- Gender
- Human–robot interaction
- Social robotics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science(all)
Cite this
Age- and Gender-Based Differences in Children’s Interactions with a Gender-Matching Robot. / Sandygulova, Anara; O’Hare, Gregory M.P.
In: International Journal of Social Robotics, Vol. 10, No. 5, 01.11.2018, p. 687-700.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Age- and Gender-Based Differences in Children’s Interactions with a Gender-Matching Robot
AU - Sandygulova, Anara
AU - O’Hare, Gregory M.P.
PY - 2018/11/1
Y1 - 2018/11/1
N2 - Social robots are increasingly being used to encourage social, emotional and cognitive growth in children. However, in order to establish social and bonding interactions, social robots need to be able to exhibit adaptive strategies to keep children engaged and interested. Adaptive strategies of a social robot based on children’s age and gender are motivated by the comprehensive theory on gender development. Given the strong influence of gender in children’s cognitive development, the experiment first examined the responses of 107 children, ages 5–12, whether synthesized voice evokes gender associations in children. The results suggest that young children (ages 5–8) are not able to successfully attribute gender to the robot in correspondence with the synthesized voice. In addition, we explicitly investigated children’s preferences for the robot’s gender, and the results were contrary to our expectations: young children indicated their preference for a robot with a matching gender while there was no difference in preferences for a robot’s gender by older children (ages 9–12).
AB - Social robots are increasingly being used to encourage social, emotional and cognitive growth in children. However, in order to establish social and bonding interactions, social robots need to be able to exhibit adaptive strategies to keep children engaged and interested. Adaptive strategies of a social robot based on children’s age and gender are motivated by the comprehensive theory on gender development. Given the strong influence of gender in children’s cognitive development, the experiment first examined the responses of 107 children, ages 5–12, whether synthesized voice evokes gender associations in children. The results suggest that young children (ages 5–8) are not able to successfully attribute gender to the robot in correspondence with the synthesized voice. In addition, we explicitly investigated children’s preferences for the robot’s gender, and the results were contrary to our expectations: young children indicated their preference for a robot with a matching gender while there was no difference in preferences for a robot’s gender by older children (ages 9–12).
KW - Adaptive strategies
KW - Age
KW - Child–robot interaction
KW - Gender
KW - Human–robot interaction
KW - Social robotics
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U2 - 10.1007/s12369-018-0472-9
DO - 10.1007/s12369-018-0472-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85050141571
VL - 10
SP - 687
EP - 700
JO - International Journal of Social Robotics
JF - International Journal of Social Robotics
SN - 1875-4791
IS - 5
ER -