The Physical Presence of a Robot Tutor Increases Cognitive Learning Gains

Abstract

We present the results of a 100 participant study on the role of a robot’s physical presence in a robot tutoring task. Partic-ipants were asked to solve a set of puzzles while being pro-vided occasional gameplay advice by a robot tutor. Each par-ticipant was assigned one of five conditions: (1) no advice, (2) robot providing randomized advice, (3) voice of the robot providing personalized advice, (4) video representation of the robot providing personalized advice, or (5) physically-present robot providing personalized advice. We assess the tutor’s ef-fectiveness by the time it takes participants to complete the puzzles. Participants in the robot providing personalized ad-vice group solved most puzzles faster on average and improved their same-puzzle solving time significantly more than partic-ipants in any other group. Our study is the first to assess the effect of the physical presence of a robot in an automated tu-toring interaction. We conclude that physical embodiment can produce measurable learning gains.