Selective visual attention occurred in change detection derived by animacy of robot's appearance

Abstract

To investigate whether or not visual cognition allots more attention to robots with animate or inanimate forms, a change detection experiment was conducted for three types of robot appearance; anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and inanimate forms. Subjects detected changes more quickly in animate (anthropomorphic / zoomorphic) robots than their inanimate counterparts. This indicates that the domain-specificity of visual cognition allocates a different level of visual attention depending on robots' external appearances, and biotic features of robots' external appearances attract visual attention more than abiotic forms. Although the range of selected cases is not enough to represent all robot forms and the the particular aspects of biotic appearance that affect visual cognition were not defined, this research can lead further consideration of the visual cognitive system for the appropriate and rational design of robot forms.