Affective Feedback for a Virtual Robot in a Real-World Treasure Hunt

Abstract

We explore the effect of the behaviour of a virtual robot agent in the context of a real-world treasure-hunt activity carried out by children aged 11-12. We compare three conditions: a traditional paper-based treasure hunt, along with a virtual robot on a tablet which provides either neutral or affective feedback during the treasure hunt. The initial results of the study suggest that the use of the virtual robot increased the perceived difficulty of the instruction-following task, while the affective robot feedback in particular made the questions seem more difficult to answer.