Variation in a Humanoid Robot Behavior to Analyse Interaction Quality in Pedagogical Sessions with Children

Abstract

This paper presents a Wizard of Oz experiment with children. Two conditions were evaluated for a NAO robot: "low interactivity", and "high interactivity". In the first case, the robot repeatedly asked children to identify geometric figures. In the second case, the robot was more expressive and reactive. It greeted the participants and, when it asked to identify the figures, it also responded with a variety of gestures. The results suggest that the "high interactivity" behavior can increase engagement with the robot and the scores of a post-experiment math exam in comparison to the "low interactivity" condition.