Playing a memory game with a socially assistive robot: A case study at a long-term care facility

Abstract

Studies have shown that cognitive and social stimulation is crucial to the overall health of older adults including psychological, cognitive and physical well-being. However, activities to promote such stimulation are often lacking in long-term care facilities. Our work focuses on the use of social robotic technologies to provide person-centered cognitive interventions. Namely, this paper presents an HRI study with the unique human-like socially assistive robot Brian 2.1, in order to investigate the use and acceptability of the expressive human-like robot by older adults living in a longterm care center. Current studies with social robots for the elderly have been mainly directed towards collecting data on the acceptance and use of animal-like robots. Herein, we aim to determine if the robot's human-like assistive and social characteristics result in the elderly having positive attitudes towards the robot as well as accepting it as an interactive cognitive training tool.