Robots Tutoring Children: Longitudinal Evaluation of Social Engagement in Child-Robot Interaction

This paper explores children’s social engagement to a robotic tutor by analyzing their behavioral reactions to socially significant events initiated by the robot. Specific questions addressed in this paper are whether children express signs of social engagement as a reaction to such events, and if so, in what way. The second question is whether these reactions differ between different types of social events, and finally, whether such reactions disappear or change over time. Our analysis indicates that children indeed show behaviors that indicate social engagement using a range of communicative channels. While gaze towards the robot’s face is the most common indication for all types of social events, verbal expressions and nods are especially common for questions, and smiles are most common after positive feedback. Although social responses in general decrease slightly over time, they are still observable after three sessions with the robot