Testing the Error Recovery Capabilities of Robotic Speech

Trust in Human-Robot Interaction is a widely studied subject, and yet, few studies have examined the ability to speak and how it impacts trust towards a robot. Errors can have a negative impact on perceived trustworthiness of a robot. However, there seem to be mitigating effects, such as using a humanoid robot, which has been shown to be perceived as more trustworthy when having a high error-rate than a more mechanical robot with the same error- rate. We want to use a humanoid robot to test whether speech can increase anthropomorphism and mitigate the effects of errors on trust. For this purpose, we are planning an experiment where participants solve a sequence completion task, with the robot giv- ing suggestions (either verbal or non-verbal) for the solution. In addition, we want to measure whether the degree of error (slight error vs. severe error) has an impact on the participants’ behaviour and the robot’s perceived trustworthiness, since making a severe error would affect trust more than a slight error. Participants will be assigned to three groups, where we will vary the degree of accu- racy of the robot’s answers (correct vs. almost right vs. obviously wrong). They will complete ten series of a sequence completion task and rate trustworthiness and general perception (Godspeed Questionnaire) of the robot. We also present our thoughts on the implications of potential results.