ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigated whether Canadian preschoolers prefer to learn from a competent robot over an incompetent human using the classic trust paradigm. An adapted Naive Biology task was also administered to assess children’s perception of robots. In Study 1, 3-year-olds and 5-year-olds were presented with two informants; A social, humanoid robot (Nao) who labeled familiar objects correctly, while a human informant labeled them incorrectly. Both informants then labeled unfamiliar objects with novel labels. It was found that 3-year-old children equally endorsed the labels provided by the robot and the human, but 5-year-old children learned significantly more from the competent robot. Interestingly, 5-year-olds endorsed Nao’s labels even though they accurately categorized the robot as having mechanical insides. In contrast, 3-year-old children associated Nao with biological or mechanical insides equally. In Study 2, new samples of 3-year-olds and 5-year-olds were tested to determine whether the human-like appearance of the robot informant impacted children’s trust judgments. The procedure was identical to that of Study 1, except that a non-humanoid robot, Cozmo, replaced Nao. It was found that 3-year-old children still trusted the robot and the human equally and that 5-year-olds preferred to learn new labels from the robot, suggesting that the robot’s morphology does not play a key role in their selective trust strategies. It is concluded that by 5 years of age, preschoolers show a robust sensitivity to epistemic characteristics (e.g., competency), but that younger children’s decisions are equally driven by the animacy of the informant.

摘要

在本文中，我们使用经典的信任范式调查了加拿大学龄前儿童是否更喜欢向有能力的机器人学习而不是向无能力的人类学习。还进行了一项改编的朴素生物学任务来评估儿童对机器人的感知。在研究 1 中，向 3 岁和 5 岁的儿童展示了两名线人；一个社交类人机器人 (Nao)，能够正确标记熟悉的物体，而人类线人则错误地标记它们。然后，两位线人都给不熟悉的物体贴上了新的标签。研究发现，3 岁的孩子对机器人和人类提供的标签的认可程度相同，但 5 岁的孩子从有能力的机器人那里学到的东西要多得多。有趣的是，5 岁的孩子认可 Nao 的标签，尽管他们准确地将机器人归类为具有机械内部结构。相比之下，3 岁的孩子将 Nao 与生物或机械内部同等地联系在一起。在研究2中，对3岁和5岁儿童的新样本进行了测试，以确定机器人线人的类人外观是否会影响儿童的信任判断。该过程与研究 1 相同，只是用非人形机器人 Cozmo 代替了 Nao。研究发现，3 岁的孩子仍然平等地信任机器人和人类，5 岁的孩子更喜欢从机器人那里学习新标签，这表明机器人的形态在他们的选择性信任策略中并没有发挥关键作用。结论是，到 5 岁时，学龄前儿童对认知特征（例如能力）表现出强烈的敏感性，但年龄较小的儿童的决定同样受到信息提供者的活力的驱动。