Human but not robotic gaze facilitates action prediction

Tidoni, E., Holle, H., Scandola, M., Schindler, I., Hill, L. and Cross, E. S. (2022) Human but not robotic gaze facilitates action prediction. iScience, 25(6), 104462. (doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104462) (PMID:35707718) (PMCID:PMC9189121)

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Abstract

Do people ascribe intentions to humanoid robots as they would to humans or non-human-like animated objects? In six experiments, we compared people’s ability to extract non-mentalistic (i.e., where an agent is looking) and mentalistic (i.e., what an agent is looking at; what an agent is going to do) information from gaze and directional cues performed by humans, human-like robots, and a non-human-like object. People were faster to infer the mental content of human agents compared to robotic agents. Furthermore, although the absence of differences in control conditions rules out the use of non-mentalizing strategies, the human-like appearance of non-human agents may engage mentalizing processes to solve the task. Overall, results suggest that human-like robotic actions may be processed differently from humans’ and objects’ behavior. These findings inform our understanding of the relevance of an object’s physical features in triggering mentalizing abilities and its relevance for human–robot interaction.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Cross, Professor Emily
Creator Roles:
Cross, E. S.Conceptualization, Visualization, Writing – review and editing
Authors: Tidoni, E., Holle, H., Scandola, M., Schindler, I., Hill, L., and Cross, E. S.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
Journal Name:iScience
Publisher:Elsevier (Cell Press)
ISSN:2589-0042
ISSN (Online):2589-0042
Published Online:25 May 2022
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 The Authors
First Published:First published in iScience 25(6): 104462
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
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