Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life: An Investigation of Young Children's Beliefs About Robot Intelligence

Making Sense by Building Sense: Kindergarten Children’s Construction and Understanding of Adaptive Robot Behaviors

“…The research literature refers to a number of dyads describing people's stance toward artifacts: animate or human-like intention versus inanimate technological purpose (Ackermann 1991;Turkle 1984;Scaife and van Duuren 1995;Okita and Schwartz 2006;Bernestein and Crowley 2008;Jipson and Gelman 2007); function versus mechanism (Piaget and Inhelder 1972;Granott 1991;Metz 1991;Levy and Mioduser 2008); function versus physical appearance (Kemler Nelson and 11 Swarthmore College Students 1995; Diesendruck et al 2003) and original (designer's) intended function versus current function (Bloom 1996;Matan and Carey 2001;Defeyter 2003).…”

“…Between the ages of 5 and 7 years, children begin forming a differentiated concept of ''intelligent artifacts'' that think, decide and act, have a brain, and are a special category of cognitively competent artifacts; with robots eliciting earlier understandings of such notions than computers. Bernestein and Crowley (2008) explored young children's attribution of intellectual, psychological and biological capabilities to a similar set of items, and how these relate to prior experience with robots. Contrary to the Scaife and van Duuren studies, they did not find comparable age differences.…”

Living with robots : investigating the user acceptance of social robots in domestic environments

“…A first evidence for this new category can be found in the notion that young children cannot easily distinguish robots from alive or not alive (Bernstein & Crowley, 2008;Jipson & Gelman, 2007), even though they consistently classify other living and nonliving entities as distinct from another in terms of biological, psychological and perceptual properties from the age of five (Inagaki & Hatano, 2002). So it seems that children do not show similar patterns of attribution of aliveness to robots as they do with other canonical entities.…”

Digital Emotion : How Audiences React to Robots on Screen

“…Robot developers are working toward building robots that can act on their own, independent of specific direction from users. This type of "smart technology", as it is sometimes called, has begun to make its way into the everyday life of humans (Bernstein and Crowley, 2008).…”

“…These robots are known as social robots. Social robots hold a variety of different functions, including aiding the elderly, acting as tour guides, and even tutoring [57,58]. The robots can also have emotional roles, acting as companions, allowing people to cope with negative states such as depression, loneliness, and disability [59].…”