Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot

In search for better technological solutions for education, we adapted a principle from economic game theory, namely that giving a help will promote collaboration and eventually long-term relations between a robot and a child. This principle has been shown to be effective in games between humans and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: E. I. Barakova, M. De Haas, W. Kuijpers, N. Irigoyen, A. Betancourt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2018-01-01
Series:Connection Science
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2017.1350938
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850244503443603456
author E. I. Barakova
M. De Haas
W. Kuijpers
N. Irigoyen
A. Betancourt
author_facet E. I. Barakova
M. De Haas
W. Kuijpers
N. Irigoyen
A. Betancourt
author_sort E. I. Barakova
collection DOAJ
description In search for better technological solutions for education, we adapted a principle from economic game theory, namely that giving a help will promote collaboration and eventually long-term relations between a robot and a child. This principle has been shown to be effective in games between humans and between humans and computer agents. We compared the social and cognitive engagement of children when playing checkers game combined with a social strategy against a robot or against a computer. We found that by combining the social and game strategy the children (average age of 8.3 years) had more empathy and social engagement with the robot since the children did not want to necessarily win against it. This finding is promising for using social strategies for the creation of long-term relations between robots and children and making educational tasks more engaging. An additional outcome of the study was the significant difference in the perception of the children about the difficulty of the game – the game with the robot was seen as more challenging and the robot – as a smarter opponent. This finding might be due to the higher perceived or expected intelligence from the robot, or because of the higher complexity of seeing patterns in three-dimensional world.
format Article
id doaj-art-9e93cd57d8fb45c49f1a7b289f0c20be
institution OA Journals
issn 0954-0091
1360-0494
language English
publishDate 2018-01-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Connection Science
spelling doaj-art-9e93cd57d8fb45c49f1a7b289f0c20be2025-08-20T01:59:43ZengTaylor & Francis GroupConnection Science0954-00911360-04942018-01-01301819810.1080/09540091.2017.13509381350938Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robotE. I. Barakova0M. De Haas1W. Kuijpers2N. Irigoyen3A. Betancourt4Eindhoven University of TechnologyEindhoven University of TechnologyEindhoven University of TechnologyEindhoven University of TechnologyEindhoven University of TechnologyIn search for better technological solutions for education, we adapted a principle from economic game theory, namely that giving a help will promote collaboration and eventually long-term relations between a robot and a child. This principle has been shown to be effective in games between humans and between humans and computer agents. We compared the social and cognitive engagement of children when playing checkers game combined with a social strategy against a robot or against a computer. We found that by combining the social and game strategy the children (average age of 8.3 years) had more empathy and social engagement with the robot since the children did not want to necessarily win against it. This finding is promising for using social strategies for the creation of long-term relations between robots and children and making educational tasks more engaging. An additional outcome of the study was the significant difference in the perception of the children about the difficulty of the game – the game with the robot was seen as more challenging and the robot – as a smarter opponent. This finding might be due to the higher perceived or expected intelligence from the robot, or because of the higher complexity of seeing patterns in three-dimensional world.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2017.1350938economic game strategies for robotsengagement robot/computerlong-term relations with robotscombining social and game strategy
spellingShingle E. I. Barakova
M. De Haas
W. Kuijpers
N. Irigoyen
A. Betancourt
Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
Connection Science
economic game strategies for robots
engagement robot/computer
long-term relations with robots
combining social and game strategy
title Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
title_full Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
title_fullStr Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
title_full_unstemmed Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
title_short Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
title_sort socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot
topic economic game strategies for robots
engagement robot/computer
long-term relations with robots
combining social and game strategy
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2017.1350938
work_keys_str_mv AT eibarakova sociallygroundedgamestrategyenhancesbondingandperceivedsmartnessofahumanoidrobot
AT mdehaas sociallygroundedgamestrategyenhancesbondingandperceivedsmartnessofahumanoidrobot
AT wkuijpers sociallygroundedgamestrategyenhancesbondingandperceivedsmartnessofahumanoidrobot
AT nirigoyen sociallygroundedgamestrategyenhancesbondingandperceivedsmartnessofahumanoidrobot
AT abetancourt sociallygroundedgamestrategyenhancesbondingandperceivedsmartnessofahumanoidrobot