Telepresence and Apparent Agency in Human–Robot Interaction
Abstract
Telepresence robots are often different in that they typically inherit their agency from the human tele-operators who drive them. Through qualitative field observations and quantitative findings from a series of lab experiments, the author compiles a body of work that points toward the importance of apparent agency and teasing out the factors that influence it. Using a variable-based approach to studying communication technologies, the author looked for design and framing variables that would improve how loudly or quietly people spoke, how safely people would move around, and how much of a teammate the remote coworkers could become. These field studies and experiments represent one slice of the ongoing research in human–robot interaction, human–computer interaction, and computer-supported cooperative work that is moving toward gaining a deeper understanding of robotic telepresence.
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Humans exhibit intentional agency, machines display apparent agency, the perception of thinking and acting capacities that machines seem to possess during interaction.
“Humans exhibit intentional agency, machines display apparent agency, the perception of thinking and acting capacities that machines seem to possess during interaction [24, 169].”
From Exploring Collaboration Patterns and Strategies in Human-AI Co-creation through the Lens of Agency: A Scoping Review of the Top-tier HCI Literature (2025) · cites this paper as [169]
The proposed extension accounts for some divergent research findings wherein human-media agent interactions are not consistent with human-human scripts.
“First, it reconciles the CASA perspective with trends in digital media use and accounts for some divergent research findings wherein human-media agent interactions are not consistent with human-human scripts (e.g., Edwards et al., 2019; Srinivasan & Takayama, 2016; Takayama, 2015).”
From Building a Stronger CASA: Extending the Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm (2020) · cites this paper as Takayama, 2015
The proposed extension reconciles the CASA perspective with trends in digital media use.
“First, it reconciles the CASA perspective with trends in digital media use and accounts for some divergent research findings wherein human-media agent interactions are not consistent with human-human scripts (e.g., Edwards et al., 2019; Srinivasan & Takayama, 2016; Takayama, 2015).”
From Building a Stronger CASA: Extending the Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm (2020) · cites this paper as Takayama, 2015
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- Authors
- Takayama, L.
- Affiliations
- Google (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Takayama, Leila
- ORCID
- Takayama, Leila
- Venue
- The Handbook of the Psychology of Communication Technology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-01-05
- Pages
- 160-175
- OpenAlex
- W1552160872
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- Type
- other
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Teleoperation and Haptic Systems
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Keywords
- telepresence robots, apparent agency, human-robot interaction, teleoperation, remote collaboration, design variables, speech volume, robot safety, teamwork, computer-supported cooperative work
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