DIP: Collaborative Research: Social Robots as Mechanisms for Language Instruction, Interaction, and Evaluation in Pre-School Children

DIP：协作研究：社交机器人作为学前儿童语言教学、互动和评估的机制

• 批准号: 1122845
• 负责人: David DeSteno
• 金额: $ 13.1万
• 依托单位: Northeastern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1122845&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DIP; Collaborative; Research; Social; Robots

This project is leveraging emerging technologies in social robotics with recent findings from social, developmental, and cognitive psychology to design, implement, and evaluate a new generation of robots that is capable of interacting with and instructing young learners (ages 3 through 6) in a truly social way. The robot incorporates signals that the mind implicitly uses to ascertain another's intentions, motivations, and affiliations (e.g., motor mimicry and synchrony, affective cues, gaze direction), making it capable of serving as a true embodiment of a human instructor. The robotic platform can be controlled remotely, through a direct and proximate connection or a remote, Internet-based operator interface. As such, the system can be placed in several different environments, ranging from a child's home to medical areas where issues of mobility or immunosuppression make it difficult for direct interaction with instructors. Research is aimed at better understanding children's concepts of robot mind and of robots as agents, uncovering mental operations behind learning new words, and adding to what is known about the added value (if any) of non-verbal utterances to understanding, communication, and collaboration.Emerging research has identified the acquisition of early language and vocabulary skills primary predictors of later academic success. Impoverished vocabulary upon entering kindergarten strongly predicts poor subsequent academic performance. Accordingly, the use of technologies designed to build vocabulary during the preschool years is key to facilitating many types of learning. Interactions with a robotic language partner are expected to have particularly important ramifications for children with compromised opportunities to interact regularly with attentive, nurturing caregivers willing and able to foster their vital socio-intellectual developmental needs. In addition, the rationales, artifacts, and cyber platforms and infrastructure created for this project could lend themselves to a broad range of design extensions, such as providing opportunities for children who are learning English as a second language to participate in English-language-based social activities, outreach to rural areas where children have infrequent access to social activities, supporting children of deaf parents, and assessing/assisting children with pragmatic language impairments.

该项目正在利用社会机器人技术中的新兴技术，最新的发现，从社会，发展和认知心理学到设计，实施和评估新一代机器人，这些机器人能够以一种真正的社会方式与年轻学习者（3至6岁）进行互动和指导。该机器人结合了思想隐含用来确定他人的意图，动机和隶属关系的信号（例如，运动模仿和同步，情感提示，凝视方向），使其能够充当人类教练的真正体现。机器人平台可以通过直接且近距离连接或基于Internet的操作员界面来远程控制。因此，该系统可以放置在几个不同的环境中，从儿童的家到医疗领域，在这些环境中，流动性或免疫抑制问题使与教师直接互动变得困难。研究旨在更好地理解儿童的机器人思维和机器人作为代理商的概念，揭示学习新单词背后的心理操作，并增加对理解，沟通和协作的非言语话语的了解（如果有的话）。进行研究确定了早期语言和词汇技能的主要学术预测者的获得者。进入幼儿园后，贫穷的词汇强烈预测随后的学习成绩不佳。因此，使用旨在在学龄前年代建立词汇的技术是促进许多类型的学习的关键。预计与机器人语言伴侣的互动将对有折衷机会的儿童产生特别重要的后果，可以与愿意并能够培养其重要的社会智能发展需求的细心，养育护理人员定期互动。此外，为该项目创建的理由，文物，网络平台和基础架构可能会涉及广泛的设计扩展，例如为那些学习英语作为第二种语言的孩子提供机会，以参与基于英语的社交活动，向农村地区参与到农村地区，在儿童中遇到社交活动的访问，并支持活动型孩子的孩子，并与互相评估和评估活动的孩子一样。