"Sorry to Disturb You": Autism and Robot Interruptions

Here, we present a novel experiment on the yet unstudied phenomenon of ASC adults' responses to interruption, using a robot role-play clerical task. Using an IQ, gender, and task parameter matched NT control sample, we found that adults with ASC experience marginally less task disruption from a robot interrupter comparatively to a human. We surmise that robot-assisted therapy for adults with the condition is a potential research avenue worth further exploration.

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