AUTHOR=Charisi Vicky , Gomez Emilia , Mier Gonzalo , Merino Luis , Gomez Randy 

TITLE=Child-Robot Collaborative Problem-Solving and the Importance of Child's Voluntary Interaction: A Developmental Perspective

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2020.00015

DOI=10.3389/frobt.2020.00015

ISSN=2296-9144

ABSTRACT=The emergence and development of cognitive strategies for the transition from exploratory actions towards intentional problem-solving in children is a key question for the understanding of the development of human cognition. Researchers in developmental psychology have studied cognitive strategies and have highlighted the catalytic role of the social environment. However, it is unclear how this capacity emerges and develops in biological systems when they perform a problem-solving task in collaboration with a robotic social agent. This paper presents an empirical study in a human-robot interaction (HRI) setting which investigates children's problem-solving from a developmental perspective. In order to theoretically conceptualize children's developmental process of problem-solving in HRI context, we use principles of intuitive theory and we take into consideration existing research on executive functions with a focus on inhibitory control. We considered the paradigm of the Tower of Hanoi and we conducted an HRI behavioural experiment to evaluate task performance. We designed two types of robot interventions, ``voluntary'' and ``turn-taking'' - manipulating exclusively the timing of the intervention. Our results indicate that children who participated in the voluntary interaction setting showed a large variability in the frequency self-initiated interaction with the robot and a better performance in the problem solving activity in the evaluation session. Additionally, we present a detailed description of problem-solving trajectories for a representative single case-study, which reveals specific developmental patterns for problem-solving process for the specific task. Implications and future work are discussed regarding the development of intelligent robotic systems that allow child-initiated interaction and exploration as well as targeted and not constantly imposed robot interventions.