Reversal Learning Task in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Robot-Based Approach.
Keepon robot makes kids happier but does not sharpen their set-shifting skill.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kids with autism played a reversal-learning game with a cute yellow robot named Keepon. The robot pointed to pictures and the kids had to learn when the rules changed.
The team compared the same game run by a person. They filmed faces and coded smiles, frowns, and eye contact to see which partner felt better.
What they found
Children smiled more and stayed focused longer when Keepon ran the game. Yet their scores on switching rules were almost the same for robot and human.
During the first teaching round, the robot actually slowed learning a little. Once the rule flipped, accuracy was equal.
How this fits with other research
Rakhymbayeva et al. (2021) later showed the same boost in engagement can last for weeks if you keep the robot tasks familiar. A et al. only tested one short visit.
McGonigle et al. (2014) found kids talked and gestured most with real people, less with on-screen avatars. Keepon adds a twist: a moving object beats a screen, but still trails a human for communication.
Whiteside et al. (2022) moved robots into living rooms and saw no extra gain from fancy dance moves. Together the three papers say robots help attention, not new learning.
Why it matters
Use Keepon or similar robots as a hook, not a teacher. Start a tough discrimination program with the robot to grab interest, then switch to a person for the heavy teaching. Track smiles and eye contact as you go—if they drop, bring the robot back for a quick reset.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in highly perseverative and inflexible behaviours. Technological tools, such as robots, received increased attention as social reinforces and/or assisting tools for improving the performance of children with ASD. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of the robotic toy Keepon in a cognitive flexibility task performed by children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children. The number of participants included in this study is 81 children: 40 TD children and 41 children with ASD. Each participant had to go through two conditions: robot interaction and human interaction in which they had performed the reversal learning task. Our primary outcomes are the number of errors from acquisition phase and from reversal phase of the task; as secondary outcomes we have measured attentional engagement and positive affect. The results of this study showed that children with ASD are more engaged in the task and they seem to enjoy more the task when interacting with the robot compared with the interaction with the adult. On the other hand their cognitive flexibility performance is, in general, similar in the robot and the human conditions with the exception of the learning phase where the robot can interfere with the performance. Implication for future research and practice are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2015 · doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2319-z