Is talking to a simulated robot like talking to a child?

Previous research has found people to transfer behaviors from social interaction among humans to interactions with computers or robots. These findings suggest that people will talk to a robot which looks like a child in a similar way as people talking to a child. However, in a previous study in which we compared speech to a simulated robot with speech to preverbal, 10 months old infants, we did not find the expected similarities. One possibility is that people were targeting an older child than a 10 months old. In the current study, we address the similarities and differences between speech to four different age groups of children and a simulated robot. The results shed light on how people talk to robots in general.

[1]  E. Rosch,et al.  Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[2]  Zsolt Ugray,et al.  Looking at human-computer interface design: Effects of ethnicity in computer agents , 2007, Interact. Comput..

[3]  L. Horowitz,et al.  Interpersonal and Noninterpersonal Interactions, Interpersonal Motives, and the Effect of Frustrated Motives , 2006, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[4]  K. Fischer,et al.  Lexical markers of common grounds , 2006 .

[5]  Kerstin Fischer,et al.  Grounding and Common Ground: Modal Particles and Their Translation Equivalents , 2006, Lexical Markers of Common Grounds.

[6]  C. Snow.  Mothers' Speech to Children Learning Language. , 1972 .

[7]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[8]  Eun-Ju Lee,et al.  Flattery may get computers somewhere, sometimes: The moderating role of output modality, computer gender, and user gender , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[9]  C. Nass,et al.  Machines and Mindlessness , 2000 .

[10]  Daniel M. Johnson,et al.  Experience as a moderator of the media equation: the impact of flattery and praise , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[11]  C. A. Ferguson,et al.  Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition , 1979 .

[12]  Thomas Gloning,et al.  Arnulf Deppermann. 2007. Grammatik und Semantik aus gesprächsanalytischer Sicht (Linguistik – Impulse und Tendenzen 14). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter. xiv, 351 S , 2011 .

[13]  Katharina J. Rohlfing,et al.  Computational Analysis of Motionese Toward Scaffolding Robot Action Learning , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development.

[14]  Khalil Sima'an,et al.  Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship , 2006, Computational Linguistics.

[15]  Wolfgang Menzel,et al.  A Transformation-based Parsing Technique With Anytime Properties , 2000, IWPT.

[16]  E. Veneziano.  Displacement and informativeness in child-directed talk , 2001 .

[17]  Kerstin Fischer,et al.  Mindful tutors: Linguistic choice and action demonstration in speech to infants and a simulated robot , 2011 .

[18]  Barbara A. Fox,et al.  Practices in the Construction of Turns: The "TCU" Revisited , 1996 .

[19]  T. G. Nienhuys,et al.  Linguistic Feedback and Maternal Speech: Comparisons of Mothers Addressing Hearing and Hearing-impaired Children , 1980 .

[20]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Etiquette equality: exhibitions and expectations of computer politeness , 2004, CACM.

[21]  Kirsten Abbot-Smith,et al.  How Known Constructions Influence the Acquisition of Other Constructions: The German Passive and Future Constructions , 2006, Cogn. Sci..

[22]  Wendy Ju.  Approachability : How People Interpret Automatic Door Movement as Gesture , 2008 .

[23]  B. Depaulo,et al.  Talking to children, foreigners, and retarded adults. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Silicon sycophants: the effects of computers that flatter , 1997, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[25]  Arnulf Deppermann.  Grammatik und semantik aus gesprächsanalytischer sicht , 2007 .

[26]  E. Aharoni,et al.  Social reactions toward people vs. computers: How mere lables shape interactions , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..