AUTHOR=Tewari Maitreyee , Lindgren Helena 

TITLE=Expecting, understanding, relating, and interacting-older, middle-aged and younger adults’ perspectives on breakdown situations in human–robot dialogues

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.956709

DOI=10.3389/frobt.2022.956709

ISSN=2296-9144

ABSTRACT=Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to explore how old and young adults perceive breakdown situations caused by misunderstanding, sudden focus shifts, and conflicting intentions in dialogues between a human and a socially intelligent robot in a home environment. 
 
Methods:
Scenarios of dialogues on health-related topics were constructed based on activity-theoretical and argumentation frameworks. Different reasons for breakdown situations and strategies to handle these were embedded. We made recordings of dialogues in a WoZ setup. 20 younger and older participants viewed the recordings and participated in semi-structured interviews conducted remotely. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. 

Results:
Four themes relating to breakdown situations emerged: expecting, understanding, relating, and interacting. The themes span complex human activity at different, complementary levels and provide further developed understanding of breakdown situations in human-robot interaction (HRI). Older adults emphasized emphatic behavior and adherence to social norms, while younger adults focused on functional aspects such as gaze, response time, and length of utterances. A hierarchical taxonomy of aspects relating to breakdown situations was formed, and design implications are provided, guiding future research.

Conclusion 
We conclude that a socially intelligent robot agent needs strategies to, 
i) construct and manage its understanding related to emotions of the human, social norms, knowledge, and motive on a higher level of meaningful human activity, 
ii) act accordingly, for instance, adhering to transparent social roles, and 
iii) resolve conflicting motives, and identify reasons for, prevent and manage breakdown situations at different levels of collaborative activity. We provide some design implications, guiding future research.