Is talking to a simulated robot like talking to a child?

Abstract

Previous research has found people to transfer behaviors from social interaction among humans to interactions with computers or robots. These findings suggest that people will talk to a robot which looks like a child in a similar way as people talking to a child. However, in a previous study in which we compared speech to a simulated robot with speech to preverbal, 10 months old infants, we did not find the expected similarities. One possibility is that people were targeting an older child than a 10 months old. In the current study, we address the similarities and differences between speech to four different age groups of children and a simulated robot. The results shed light on how people talk to robots in general.