Motivational Effects of Acknowledging Feedback from a Socially Assistive Robot

Abstract

Abstract. Preventing diseases of affluence is one of the major challenges for our future society. Recently, robots have been introduced as support for people on dieting or rehabilitation tasks. In our current work, we are investigating how the companionship and acknowledgement of a socially assistive robot (SAR) can influence the user to persist longer on a planking task. We conducted a 2 (acknowledgement vs. no-acknowledgment) x 2 (instructing vs. exercising together) x 1 (baseline) study with 96 subjects. We observed a motivational gain if the robot is exercising together with the user or if the robot is giving acknowledging feedback. However, we could not find an increase in motivation if the robot is showing both behaviors. We attribute the later finding to ceiling effects and discuss why we could not find an additional performance gain. Moreover, we highlight implications for SAR researchers developing robots to motivate people to extend exercising duration.

Comparing the Effects of Social Robots and Virtual Agents on Exercising Motivation

“…To investigate whether embodied robots show an advantage in terms of exercising motivation compared to VAs, we analyze the data of the previous studies from [14] and [15] and from [7]. Feltz et al [7] conducted a study to compare the motivational effects of exercising with a humanoid virtual partner with a hardly human-like appearance (Hardly Human Partner (HHP)), a nearly human-like appearance (Nearly Human Partner (NHP)) and with a human partner (Human Partner (HP)) (see Figure 2) compared to a condition in which the subject is always exercising alone (Individual Condition (IC)).…”

“…RCF In [15] the Robot Companion with Feedback (RCF) had the same behavior as in the RC. However, the robots also gave encouraging feedback while exercising (see [15] for detailed information). RIF In [15] the Robot Instructor with Feedback (RIF) had the same behavior as in the RI.…”

“…However, the robots also gave encouraging feedback while exercising (see [15] for detailed information). RIF In [15] the Robot Instructor with Feedback (RIF) had the same behavior as in the RI. However, the robot also gave encouraging feedback while exercising.…”

“…We used the average of participants' exercising time on Block 1 between the two studies as an adjustment value. Participants in study [7] exercised on average 7.78 seconds less in Block 1 than in the studies from [14] and [15]. We used this value and added it to the exercising time of Block 1 for the NHP, HHP, and HP conditions.…”

“…Our previous studies showed the motivational effects of working out coactively with a SAR or receiving encouraging feedback from a SAR [14,15]. In the present work, we want to look at whether co-actively exercising robots are enhancing people's motivation to exercise compared to virtual partners.…”