Robotic pets in the lives of preschool children

Abstract

This study examined preschool children's reasoning about and behavioral interactions with one of the most advanced robotic pets currently on the retail market, Sony's robotic dog AIBO. Eighty children, equally divided between two age groups, 34-50 months and 58-74 months, participated in individual sessions that included play with and an interview about two artifacts: AIBO and a stuffed dog. Results showed similarities in children's reasoning about the two artifacts, but differences in their behavioral interactions. Discussion focuses on how robotic pets, as representative of an emerging technological genre in HCI, may be (a) blurring foundational ontological categories, and (b) impacting children's social and moral development. More broadly, results inform on our understanding of the human-robotic relationship.

Children’s Age Influences Their Perceptions of a Humanoid Robot as Being Like a Person or Machine

“…In line with existing literature [3,4], on average older children considered the Zeno robot to be significantly more like a machine than the younger children did. Critically, this large effect was demonstrated using a simple and accessible measure that could be included in future studies without overburdening young participants.…”

“…With age, children are more likely to classify pictures of humanoid robots as being pictures of machines rather than living [3]. However, further HRI work indicates children of that age do not evaluate a robotic dog as different from a stuffed dog toy in terms of animacy, biology, and mental states [4]. In sum, factors influencing children's perceptions of humanoid robots as persons or machines still remain to be uncovered.…”

Children’s Age Influences Their Use of Biological and Mechanical Questions Towards a Humanoid

“…However, these were infrequent in the data set collected and, as yet, not suited to statistical analysis, offering some support for hypothesis (1b). Further research on children's mixed beliefs about humanoids may be more fruitful with using greater-depth interviews, such as those used in developmental research [4] and in HRI with the biommimetic Aibo [20].…”

“…Studies point towards aspects of Carey's model of conceptual change [4] but others offer contrasting outcomes (e.g., young children have shown both consistent [7] and inconsistent [8] animacy beliefs about a robot dog).…”

Engineering Cheerful Robots: An Ethical Consideration

“…For instance, by age 4, most children categorize prototypical living and non-living kinds, and typically designate robots to the inanimate category; but findings that children tend to attribute aliveness to robot pets with which they interact may indicate the emergence of a new ontological category that disrupts current animate/inanimate distinctions [29][30][31][32]. Commentators may comment on the desirability (or otherwise) of inevitable consequences of a technologized social reality.…”