Theory of Mind Assessment with Human-Human and Human-Robot Interactions

• Published in: Human-Computer Interaction. Technological Innovation Vol. 13303; pp. 564 - 579
• Main Authors: Rabe, Trent, Callis, Anisa, Zheng, Zhi, Heard, Jamison, Bailey, Reynold, Alm, Cecilia
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2022; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Human-robotic interaction; Social robotics; Theory of Mind
• ISBN: 3031054083; 9783031054082
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05409-9_41

Human-robot interaction has played an increasingly significant role in more recent research involving the Theory of Mind (ToM). As the use of robot facilitators increases, questions arise regarding the implications of their involvement in a research setting. This work addresses the effects of a humanoid robot facilitator in a ToM assessment. This paper analyzes subjects’ performances on tasks meant to test ToM as those tasks are delivered by human or robot facilitators. Various modalities of data were collected: performance on ToM tasks, subjects’ perceptions of the robot, results from a ToM survey, and response duration. This paper highlights the effects of human-robot interactions in ToM assessments, which ultimately leads to a discussion on the effectiveness of using robot facilitators in future human-subject research.