Beskrivning
We live in a complex world where we proactively plan and execute various behaviors byforming expectations in real time. Expectations are beliefs regarding the future state of
affairs and they play an integral part of our perception, attention, and behavior. Over
time, our expectations become more accurate as we interact with the world and others
around us. People interact socially with other people by inferring others’ purposes,
intentions, preferences, beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and goals. Similar inferences
may occur when we interact with social robots. With anthropomorphic design, these
robots are designed to mimic people physically and behaviorally. As a result, users
predominantly infer agency in social robots, often leading to mismatched expectations
of the robots’ capabilities, which ultimately influences the user experience.
In this thesis, the role and relevance of users’ expectations in first-hand social human-
robot interaction (sHRI) was investigated. There are two major findings. First, in order
to study expectations in sHRI, the social robot expectation gap evaluation framework
was developed. This framework supports the systematic study and evaluation of expec-
tations over time, considering the unique context where the interaction is unfolding.
Use of the framework can inform sHRI researchers and designers on how to manage
users’ expectations, not only in the design, but also during evaluation and presentation
of social robots. Expectations can be managed by identifying what kinds of expectations
users have and aligning these through design and dissemination which ultimately cre-
ates more transparent and successful interactions and collaborations. The framework
is a tool for achieving this goal. Second, results show that previous experience has
a strong impact on users’ expectations. People have different expectations of social
robots and view social robots as both human-like and as machines. Expectations of
social robots can vary according to the source of the expectation, with those who had
previous direct experiences of robots having different expectations than those who
relied on indirect experiences to generate expectations.
One consequence of these results is that expectations can be a confounding variable
in sHRI research. Previous experience with social robots can prime users in future
interactions with social robots. These findings highlight the unique experiences users
have, even when faced with the same robot. Users’ expectations and how they change
over time shapes the users’ individual needs and preferences and should therefore be
considered in the interpretation of sHRI. In doing so, the social robot expectation gap
can be reduced.
| Period | 2024 jan. 19 |
|---|---|
| Examinerad/handledd person | Julia Rosén |
| Examination/handledning vid |
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| Omfattning | Internationell |