Perception of Social Intelligence in Robots Performing False-Belief Tasks

This study evaluated how a robot demonstrating a Theory of Mind (ToM) influenced human perception of social intelligence and animacy in a human-robot interaction. Data was gathered through an online survey where participants watched a video depicting a NAO robot either failing or passing the Sally-Anne false-belief task. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned to either the Pass or Fail condition. A Perceived Social Intelligence Survey and the Perceived Intelligence and Animacy subsections of the Godspeed Questionnaire were used as measures. The Godspeed was given before viewing the task to measure participant expectations, and again after to test changes in opinion. Our findings show that robots demonstrating ToM significantly increase perceived social intelligence, while robots demonstrating ToM deficiencies are perceived as less socially intelligent.

Role: Graduate mentor for undergraduate student.

Associated Publications:

• Stephanie Sturgeon*, Andrew Palmer, Janelle Blankenburg, David Feil-Seifer. “Perception of Social Intelligence in Robots Performing False-Belief Tasks.” In IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), New Delhi, India, Oct 2019. https://jblankenburg.github.io/publication/2019-ROMAN