Comparing a Robotic Storyteller versus Audio Book with Integration of Sound Effects and Background Music

Abstract

Regardless of newly developed forms of narration, listening to stories remains a popular leisure activity. However, storytelling is also evolving. With social robots taking on activities initially conducted by humans, they are emerging as a new storytelling medium. Robots are able to extend human storytelling by adding sounds to the narrative to enhance recipients' emotional reaction to and transportation into the story. To this end, we conducted an online study to compare the traditional audio book to a robotic storyteller, focusing on the influence of adding sound effects and music in both storytelling approaches. Results show that neither emotion induction nor transportation was significantly affected by storytelling medium or additional sounds, but descriptive values indicate a trend towards higher emotion induction and transportation when adding sound to robotic storytelling relative to the audio book condition without additional sounds. Live replications based on this preliminary study might reveal less ambiguous findings.