4038
Keywords/Fields of Study : animation, social robots, human-robot interaction, socially-assistive robots, autism, social cognition, Theory of Mind,
Abstract: The social communication and interaction difficulties experienced by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are thought to be related to impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to attribute mental states to others which is crucial in understanding social behaviour. Furthermore, individuals with ASD are said to have a preference for systems. Consequently, computer-mediated interventions that aim at improving ToM ability were developed to leverage this preference for systems in ASD. However, computer-mediated interventions are limited in their representativeness of real-life social interactions, thus may lead to restricted generalisability. In contrast, interventions with humanoid robots are argued to be more representative of real-life social interactions and could have greater therapeutic outcomes if applied to teach recognition of mental states. However, there is currently no appropriate measure of ToM involving humanoid robots to assist in examining the degree to which these interventions are effective at achieving generalisation.
This project aimed to (1) use animation techniques to develop a sensitive and practical ToM task using humanoid robots (the Social Robot Videos task), based on the Frith-Happé Animations task; and (2) investigate the face validity of the Social Robot Videos task in a preliminary study. Both ToM tasks were administered to seven children with ASD and nine typically-developing children aged between 8 and 11 years. The differences between children with ASD and typically-developing children were comparable between the two tasks and the ToM condition of the Social Robot Videos task could discriminate between the groups. Preliminary results suggest that the Social Robot Videos task has face validity and that the task could be a useful measure of ToM intervention outcomes using humanoid robots.
Department: School of Human Sciences
, University of Western Australia
Advisor(s): Ionat Zurr, David Silvera-Tawil, Diana Tan
