human
Researchers at the Cognition and Language Development Lab tested three-
and five-year-olds to see whether robots could be better teachers than people


Date:
March 28, 2023
Source:
Concordia University
Summary:
Researchers found that preschoolers prefer learning from what
they perceive as a competent robot over an incompetent human. This
study is the first to use both a human speaker and a robot to see
if children deem social affiliation and similarity more important
than competency when choosing which source to trust and learn from.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Who do children prefer to learn from? Previous research has shown that
even infants can identify the best informant. But would preschoolers
prefer learning from a competent robot over an incompetent human?

========================================================================== According to a new paper by Concordia researchers published in the
Journal of Cognition and Development, the answer largely depends on age.

The study compared two groups of preschoolers: one of three-year-olds,
the other of five-year-olds. The children participated in Zoom meetings featuring a video of a young woman and a small robot with humanoid characteristics (head, face, torso, arms and legs) called Nao sitting
side by side. Between them were familiar objects that the robot would
label correctly while the human would label them incorrectly, e.g.,
referring to a car as a book, a ball as a shoe and a cup as a dog.

Next, the two groups of children were presented with unfamiliar items:
the top of a turkey baster, a roll of twine and a silicone muffin
container. Both the robot and the human used different nonsense terms
like "mido," "toma," "fep" and "dax" to label the objects. The children
were then asked what the object was called, endorsing either the label
offered by the robot or by the human.

While the three-year-olds showed no preference for one word over another,
the five-year-olds were much more likely to state the term provided by
the robot than the human.

"We can see that by age five, children are choosing to learn from a
competent teacher over someone who is more familiar to them -- even if
the competent teacher is a robot," says the paper's lead author, PhD
candidate Anna-Elisabeth Baumann. Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow Elizabeth
Goldman and undergraduate research assistant Alexandra Meltzer also
contributed to the study. Professor and Concordia University Chair
of Developmental Cybernetics Diane Poulin-Dubois in the Department of Psychology supervised the study.

The researchers repeated the experiments with new groups of three- and
five- year-olds, replacing the humanoid Nao with a small truck-shaped
robot called Cozmo. The results resembled those observed with the
human-like robot, suggesting that the robot's morphology does not affect
the children's selective trust strategies.

Baumann adds that, along with the labelling task, the researchers
administered a naive biology task. The children were asked if biological
organs or mechanical gears formed the internal parts of unfamiliar
animals and robots.

The three-year-olds appeared confused, assigning both biological and
mechanical internal parts to the robots. However, the five-year-olds
were much more likely to indicate that only mechanical parts belonged
inside the robots.

"This data tells us that the children will choose to learn from a robot
even though they know it is not like them. They know that the robot is mechanical," says Baumann.

Being right is better than being human While there has been a substantial amount of literature on the benefits of using robots as teaching aides
for children, the researchers note that most studies focus on a single
robot informant or two robots pitted against each other. This study,
they write, is the first to use both a human speaker and a robot to see
if children deem social affiliation and similarity more important than competency when choosing which source to trust and learn from.

Poulin-Dubois points out that this study builds on a previous paper she
co- wrote with Goldman and Baumann. That paper shows that by age five,
children treat robots similarly to how adults do, i.e., as depictions
of social agents.

"Older preschoolers know that robots have mechanical insides, but they
still anthropomorphize them. Like adults, these children attribute
certain human-like qualities to robots, such as the ability to talk,
think and feel," she says.

"It is important to emphasize that we see robots as tools to study how
children can learn from both human and non-human agents," concludes
Goldman. "As technology use increases, and as children interact with technological devices more, it is important for us to understand how
technology can be a tool to help facilitate their learning."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Mind_&_Brain
# Child_Development # Child_Psychology #
Infant_and_Preschool_Learning
o Matter_&_Energy
# Robotics_Research # Engineering # Vehicles
o Computers_&_Math
# Robotics # Artificial_Intelligence #
Educational_Technology
* RELATED_TERMS
o Robot_calibration o Android o Industrial_robot
o Humanoid_robot o Robot o Computer_vision o
Early_childhood_education o Social_psychology

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Concordia_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Anna-Elisabeth Baumann, Elizabeth J. Goldman, Alexandra Meltzer,
Diane
Poulin-Dubois. People Do Not Always Know Best: Preschoolers'
Trust in Social Robots. Journal of Cognition and Development,
2023; 1 DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2023.2178435 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230328145321.htm

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