No abstract

We examine the use of role-switching as an intrinsic motivational mechanism to increase engagement in long-term child-robot interaction. The present study describes a learning framework where children between 9 and 11-years-old interact with a robot to improve their knowledge and habits with regards to healthy life-styles. Experiments were carried out in Italy where 41 children were divided in three groups interacting with: (i ) a robot with a role-switching mechanism, (ii ) a robot without a role-switching mechanism and (iii ) an interactive video. Additionally, a control group composed of 43 more children, who were not exposed to any interactive approach, was used as a baseline of the study.During the intervention period, the three groups were exposed to three interactive sessions once a week. The aim of the study was to find any difference in healthy-habits acquisition based on alternative interactive systems, and to evaluate the effectiveness * raquel.ros.espinoza@gmail.com † oleari.elettra@hsr.it ‡ pozzi.clara@hsr.it § sacchitelli.francesca@hsr.it ¶ baranzini.daniele@hsr.it bagherzadhal.anahita@hsr.it * * sanna.alberto@hsr.it † † y.demiris@imperial.ac.uk of the role-switch approach as a trigger for engagement and motivation while interacting with a robot. The results provide evidence that the rate of children adopting healthy habits during the intervention period was higher for those interacting with a robot. Moreover, alignment with the robot behaviour and achievement of higher engagement levels were also observed for those children interacting with the robot that used the role-switching mechanism. This supports the notion that role-switching facilitates sustained long-interactions between a child and a robot.