| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,020,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The research aimed at development of "Robot Anxiety Scale (RAS) " to measure human emotion of anxiety to be evoked in interaction with robots. By using this scale and "Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (NARS)", we conducted psychological experiments and surveys to investigate relationships between human anxiety and attitudes, and communication behaviors toward robots.
First, the internal consistency and validity of RAS were confirmed through the above experiments and surveys. Second, the survey results suggested some gender differences on anxiety toward robots. Third, the experiment results found some relationships between anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots, which were measured by RAS and NARS, and communication avoidance behaviors toward robots. As a result, they confirmed the predictive validity of RAS and NARS.
On the other hand, the survey results based on NARS suggested the influences of "assumptions about robots" into attitudes toward robots, that is, which type and task of robots were assumed by respondents when they encountered the word "robots". Based on the results, a cross-cultural survey between Japan, Korea, and the USA was conducted to investigate differences on these assumptions about robots. The results found some differences between these nations on the degrees of assumed functions such as autonomy and emotional capacities, assumed tasks to be performed by robots, and abstract images about robots.
Moreover, the validity of software and robotics therapy, as one of applications of robots having communication functions, was theoretically considered from the perspectives of psychology and sociology to clarify its current state and future problems. Based on this theoretical consideration, a psychological experiment was conducted to investigate the influences of inconsistent situations into human subjects, which are assumed to happen in human-computer interaction under mental therapeutic contexts.
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