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Can Children Catch Curiosity from a Social Robot?
Open accessAbstract
Curiosity is key to learning, yet school children show wide variability in their eagerness to acquire information. Recent research suggests that other people have a strong influence on children's exploratory behavior. Would a curious robot elicit children's exploration and the desire to find out new things? In order to answer this question we designed a novel experimental paradigm in which a child plays an education tablet app with an autonomous social robot, which is portrayed as a younger peer. We manipulated the robot's behavior to be either curiosity-driven or not and measured the child's curiosity after the interaction. We show that some of the child's curiosity measures are significantly higher after interacting with a curious robot, compared to a non-curious one, while others do not. These results suggest that interacting with an autonomous social curious robot can selectively guide and promote children's curiosity.
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“Previously, social robots have been shown to promote curiosity and engagement in children (Gordon et al., 2015; Park et al., 2017), and it would be valuable to explore such functionality with older adults.”
From Personal Narratives in Technology Design: The Value of Sharing Older Adults’ Stories in the Design of Social Robots (2021) · cites this paper as Gordon et al., 2015
In the citing paper
“This strategy is inspired from studies such as [16] where authors show that children do not engage in curiositydriven behaviors mainly because they fail to see the uncertainties they have about their own knowledge.”
From GPT-3-Driven Pedagogical Agents to Train Children’s Curious Question-Asking Skills (2024) · cites this paper as [16]
In the citing paper
“we choose to maintain the linguistic help (i.e. the questioning word that can be used to start the question) for our three conditions as question-generation tasks can be quite difficult for children, as shown in [16].”
From GPT-3-Driven Pedagogical Agents to Train Children’s Curious Question-Asking Skills (2024) · cites this paper as [16]
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Social Robots for Language Learning: A Review
van den Berghe, R., Verhagen, J., Oudgenoeg‐Paz, O., van der Ven, S. H. G., & Leseman, P. P. M. (2018) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/0034654318821286 · Cited by 418
“The available studies, albeit few in number, suggest that a robot can successfully assist in teaching reading skills (Gordon et al., 2015; Hong et al., 2016; Hsiao et al., 2015; Hyun et al., 2008), grammar learning (Herberg et al., 2015; Kennedy et al., 2016), and sign language (uluer et al.,…”
BackgroundLin, H., & Chen, Q. (2024) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-024-01979-0 · Cited by 472
“Emerging research indicates how AI can enhance skills commonly associated with creativity, such as curiosity [9], perseverance, and attentiveness [10].”
BackgroundResultPopBots: Designing an Artificial Intelligence Curriculum for Early Childhood Education
Williams, R., Park, H. W., Oh, L., & Breazeal, C. (2019) · Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33019729 · Cited by 269
“KIBO (Sullivan, Elkin, and Bers 2015; Elkin, Sullivan, and Bers 2016; Bers 2017), ScratchJr (Flan-nery et al. 2013; Leidl, Bers, and Mihm 2017) and SoRo (Social Robot Toolkit) (Gordon, Breazeal, and Engel 2015) help young children develop computational thinking skills with creative, open-ended activities.”
BackgroundSelf-citationChen, H., Park, H. W., & Breazeal, C. (2020) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103836 · Cited by 291
Self-citationEmbodiment in Socially Interactive Robots
Deng, E., Mutlu, B., & Matarić, M. J. (2019) · Foundations and Trends in Robotics · doi:10.1561/2300000056 · Cited by 261
“, 2011), education (Saerbeck et al., 2010; Greczek et al., 2014; Clabaugh et al., 2015; Takeuchi et al., 2006; Kanda et al., 2004; Gordon et al., 2015), and entertainment(Kidd and Breazeal, 2004; Shinozaki et al.”
BackgroundThe role of prior knowledge and curiosity in learning
Wade, S., & Kidd, C. (2019) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-019-01598-6 · Cited by 204
Creativity and artificial intelligence—a student perspective
Marrone, R., Taddeo, V., & Hill, G. (2022) · Journal of Intelligence · doi:10.3390/jintelligence10030065 · Cited by 208
A survey on the design and evolution of social robots — Past, present and future
Mahdi, H., Akgun, S. A., Saleh, S., & Dautenhahn, K. (2022) · Robotics and Autonomous Systems · doi:10.1016/j.robot.2022.104193 · Cited by 181
Guidelines for Designing Social Robots as Second Language Tutors
Belpaeme, T., Vogt, P., van den Berghe, R., Bergmann, K., Göksun, T., de Haas, M., Kanero, J., Kennedy, J., Küntay, A., Oudgenoeg-Paz, O., et al. (2018) · International Journal of Social Robotics · doi:10.1007/s12369-018-0467-6 · Cited by 156
“Neither [24] nor [71] found significant differences due to the embodiment of the robot in their studies on children’s vocabulary acquisition.”
Social robot tutoring for child second language learning
Kennedy, J., Baxter, P. E., Senft, E., & Belpaeme, T. (2016) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1109/hri.2016.7451757 · Cited by 147
“Much of this research is centred around the social behaviour of the robot, with a view to improving learning outcomes and child responses to the robot [4], [5].”
BackgroundA Survey of Robot-Assisted Language Learning (RALL)
Randall, N. (2019) · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3345506 · Cited by 139
“Sometimes, a voice is used that is similar to the students’, such as using a child’s voice when teaching children [31, 32, 61, 111].”
BackgroundMethodGrowing Growth Mindset with a Social Robot Peer
Park, H. W., Rosenberg-Kima, R., Rosenberg, M., Gordon, G., & Breazeal, C. (2017) · Proceedings of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/2909824.3020213 · Cited by 140
“Social robots por-trayed as curious, peer-like learning companions have been shown to promote curiosity in children via co-play [14, 13].”
BackgroundSelf-citationSupporting Early Scientific Thinking Through Curiosity
Jirout, J. J. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01717 · Cited by 137
“, 2018); experiences that create uncertainty lead to higher levels of curious behavior (e.g., Bonawitz et al., 2011; Engel and Labella, 2011; Gordon et al., 2015).”
BackgroundKory-Westlund, J. M., Jeong, S., Park, H. W., Ronfard, S., Adhikari, A., Harris, P. L., DeSteno, D. A., & Breazeal, C. (2017) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00295 · Cited by 137
“We have also observed that when children play with a ‘‘curious’’ robot that exhibits pro-curious behaviors and attitudes, children express and engage in more curious behaviors (Gordon et al., 2015) and are more willing to teach new tasks to a robot peer (Park and Howard, 2015).”
BackgroundSelf-citationKory-Westlund, J. M., & Breazeal, C. (2019) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2019.00081 · Cited by 149
“, 2016), curiosity (Gordon et al., 2015), and language (Kory Westlund et al.”
BackgroundSelf-citationGPT-3-Driven Pedagogical Agents to Train Children’s Curious Question-Asking Skills
Abdelghani, R., Wang, Y.-H., Yuan, X., Wang, T., Lucas, P., Sauzéon, H., & Oudeyer, P.-Y. (2024) · International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education · doi:10.1007/s40593-023-00340-7 · Cited by 129
Zhang, C., Yao, C., Wu, J., Lin, W., Liu, L., Yan, G., & Ying, F. (2022) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3491102.3501914 · Cited by 114
“In the feld of Child–Computer Interaction (CCI), AI previously was used as a learning partner or playmate to foster positive behaviors, such as curiosity [39], growth mindset [68], persistence, and attentiveness [11].”
MethodPark, H. W., Gelsomini, M., Lee, J. J., & Breazeal, C. (2017) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/2909824.3020245 · Cited by 103
“companions have demonstrated to be social influencers that can positively impact a child’s attitude by fostering curiosity or a growth mindset [24, 10] and teach positive interpersonal skills [23, 22].”
BackgroundSelf-citationMoral considerations on social robots in education: A multi-stakeholder perspective
Smakman, M., Vogt, P., & Konijn, E. A. (2021) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104317 · Cited by 109
Can Children Learn Creativity from a Social Robot?
Ali, S., Moroso, T., & Breazeal, C. (2019) · Proceedings of the 2019 on Creativity and Cognition · doi:10.1145/3325480.3325499 · Cited by 93
“Social robots have previously been used as learning tools to foster positive learning behaviors, such as curiosity [18, 31], growth mindset [31], grit, persistence, and attentiveness [3].”
BackgroundSelf-citationRosenberg‐Kima, R. B., Koren, Y., & Gordon, G. (2020) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2019.00148 · Cited by 102
“Concurrently, social robots have progressed drastically in the last decade, especially in the field of education (Mubin et al., 2013; Brown and Howard, 2014; Gordon et al., 2015; Belpaeme et al., 2018b).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationThe Transition From Intelligent to Affective Tutoring System: A Review and Open Issues
Hasan, M. A., Noor, N. F. B. M., Rahman, S. S. B. A., & Rahman, M. M. (2020) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2020.3036990 · Cited by 103
“Specifically, our study focused on Tega [145], which is a one-to-one tutoring system for children’s second language skills.”
BackgroundKory-Westlund, J. M., & Breazeal, C. (2019) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2019.00054 · Cited by 100
“, 2018), curiosity (Gordon et al., 2015), and a growth mindset (Park et al.”
BackgroundSelf-citationArtificial Intelligence in Intelligent Tutoring Robots: A Systematic Review and Design Guidelines
Yang, J., & Zhang, B. (2019) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app9102078 · Cited by 105
Dubourg, E., & Baumard, N. (2021) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x21000923 · Cited by 81
Social robot tutoring for child second language learning
Kennedy, J., Baxter, P. E., Senft, E., & Belpaeme, T. (2016) · Lincoln Repository (University of Lincoln) · Cited by 67
Supporting Interest in Science Learning with a Social Robot
Michaelis, J. E., & Mutlu, B. (2019) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3311927.3323154 · Cited by 74
“These studies have typically looked at robots designed to improve basic skills such as vocabulary and language learning [40, 46, 64, 69], handwriting [32], and test taking [12]; or to make learning more enjoyable [37] and positively influence a child’s curiosity [25].”
BackgroundAlves‐Oliveira, P., Arriaga, P., Paiva, A., & Hoffman, G. (2021) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3434073.3444650 · Cited by 70
“Creativity training programs in the literature were as diverse as using physical exercises related with relaxation [66], improvisation [67], pretend play [68], computerenvironments [69], and robots [70].”
BackgroundAn Attachment Framework for Human-Robot Interaction
Rabb, N., Law, T., Chita-Tegmark, M., & Scheutz, M. J. (2021) · International Journal of Social Robotics · doi:10.1007/s12369-021-00802-9 · Cited by 65
“Moreover, robots have been shown to encourage curiosity and creativity in children [5,40].”
BackgroundCreativity Landscapes: Systematic Review Spanning 70 Years of Creativity Interventions for Children
Alves‐Oliveira, P., Arriaga, P., Xavier, C. S. F., Hoffman, G., & Paiva, A. (2021) · The Journal of Creative Behavior · doi:10.1002/jocb.514 · Cited by 60
Schneiders, E., Cheon, E., Kjeldskov, J., Rehm, M., & Skov, M. B. (2022) · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3488242 · Cited by 56
Higher Nonverbal Immediacy Leads to Greater Learning Gains in Child-Robot Tutoring Interactions
Kennedy, J., Baxter, P. E., Senft, E., & Belpaeme, T. (2015) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_33 · Cited by 52
Expression of Curiosity in Social Robots
Ceha, J., Chhibber, N., Goh, J., McDonald, C., Oudeyer, P., Kulić, D., & Law, E. (2019) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3290605.3300636 · Cited by 65
“As with Gordon et al.’s findings [17], our results show behavioural curiosity contagion effects as a result of interacting with a curious robot.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSystems neuroscience of curiosity
Cervera, R. L., Wang, M. Z., & Hayden, B. Y. (2020) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.06.011 · Cited by 56
“Moreover, we have yet to learn how to harness curiosity to improve our educational systems, with corresponding benefits for human welfare [9 ,10,11].”
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Ali, S., Park, H. W., & Breazeal, C. (2020) · International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1016/j.ijcci.2020.100234 · Cited by 53
Self-citationOn Measuring Engagement Level During Child-Robot Interaction in Education
Lytridis, C., Bazinas, C., Papakostas, G. A., & Kaburlasos, V. G. (2019) · Advances in intelligent systems and computing · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-26945-6_1 · Cited by 50
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Self-citationInfluence of artificial intelligence tools on higher order thinking skills: a meta-analysis
Ilgun Dibek, M., Sahin Kursad, M., & Erdogan, T. (2025) · Interactive Learning Environments · doi:10.1080/10494820.2024.2402028 · Cited by 45
“Moreover, existing research has postulated the supporting role of AI technologies on the development of creativity-related skills like curiosity, grit, persistence, and attentive-ness (Belpaeme et al., 2018; Gordon et al., 2015).”
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Kennedy, J., Baxter, P. E., & Belpaeme, T. (2016) · International Journal of Social Robotics · doi:10.1007/s12369-016-0378-3 · Cited by 44
“The human–human interaction (HHI) literature predicts an increase in learning as curiosity increases, however this finding was not replicated with robots [1].”
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“Social robots have been used with young children to support cognitive activities such as creativity [2], curiosity [14, 34], and growth mindset [28]; in this work, we aim to support metacognitive reflection.”
MethodDoodlebot: An Educational Robot for Creativity and AI Literacy
Williams, R., Ali, S., Alcantara, R. R., Burghleh, T., Alghowinem, S., & Breazeal, C. (2024) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3610977.3634950 · Cited by 56
Self-citationCreativity Encounters Between Children and Robots
Alves‐Oliveira, P., Arriaga, P., Cronin, M. A., & Paiva, A. (2020) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3319502.3374817 · Cited by 47
“Results showed that children’s curiosity levels were higher after interacting with the curious compared to a robot that did not exhibit curiosity behaviors [48].”
BackgroundDevelopment and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol
Jirout, J. J., Zumbrunn, S. K., Evans, N. S., & Vitiello, V. E. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.875161 · Cited by 46
Conversational agents for fostering curiosity-driven learning in children
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“In Gordon’s work [15], children interacted with an autonomous agent that exhibited curiosity-driven behaviors.”
BackgroundThe Cautious Attitude of Teachers Towards Social Robots in Schools
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A further look at the five-dimensional curiosity construct
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Pedagogical Agents for Fostering Question-Asking Skills in Children
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“Alternatively, one can develop educational applications and pedagogical/peer agents to elicit and reinforce students’ curiosity [4, 55, 8, 21], as curiosity and question asking are strongly linked.”
BackgroundSocial Robots as Creativity Eliciting Agents
Ali, S., Devasia, N., Park, H. W., & Breazeal, C. (2021) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2021.673730 · Cited by 44
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The Impact of Robot Tutor Nonverbal Social Behavior on Child Learning
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“Gordon et al. (2015) developed robot behaviors to promote curiosity in children with the ultimate aim of increased learning.”
Curiosity in children across ages and contexts
Jirout, J. J., Evans, N. S., & Son, L. K. (2024) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-024-00346-5 · Cited by 49
“Methods such as generating uncertainty by presenting blurred images 147 , including ambiguous causal information 66 , creating surprise 148 or modelling curiosity 149 are successful in inducing state curiosity.”
Computational Theories of Curiosity-Driven LearningPreprint
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Fostering children’s creativity through LLM-driven storytelling with a social robot
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“re increasing [1]. Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) refers to the communication between robots and humans. This communication can be verbal or nonverbal, remote or proximal. A special case of HRI is CRI [2]. Robots enter children’s lives as companions, entertainers or even educators [3]–[6]. Children are very adaptive, q…”
BackgroundChildBot: Multi-robot perception and interaction with children
Efthymiou, N., Filntisis, P. P., Koutras, P., Tsiami, A., Hadfield, J., Potamianos, G., & Maragos, P. A. (2021) · Robotics and Autonomous Systems · doi:10.1016/j.robot.2021.103975 · Cited by 29
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“Children also duplicated a social robot’s behavior when the robot modeled creativity [3], a growth mindset [28] and curiosity [17].”
BackgroundA New Theoretical Framework for Curiosity for Learning in Social Contexts
Sinha, T., Bai, Z., & Cassell, J. (2017) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66610-5_19 · Cited by 28
“[43, 16, 27]), simulating human-like curiosity in autonomous agents [34], and aiding in game theory development [9].”
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“The number and duration of interactions play a key role in letting positive dynamics surface, as it is unrealistic to expect a significant and durable improvement in performance as a result of a single interaction, as short as 10 or 15 minutes [35,45,47].”
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“Previously, social robots have been shown to promote curiosity and engagement in children (Gordon et al., 2015; Park et al., 2017), and it would be valuable to explore such functionality with older adults.”
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CreativeBot: a Creative Storyteller robot to stimulate creativity in children
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“Previous studies demonstrate that children may mirror a robot’s behavior such as curiosity [18], creativity [3] and growth mindset [27].”
BackgroundPower in Human-Robot Interaction
Hou, Y. T.-Y., Cheon, E., & Jung, M. F. (2024) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3610977.3634949 · Cited by 27
Backchannel opportunity prediction for social robot listeners
Park, H. W., Gelsomini, M., Lee, J. J., Zhu, T., & Breazeal, C. (2017) · Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation/Proceedings · doi:10.1109/icra.2017.7989266 · Cited by 23
Self-citationMultifaceted information-seeking motives in children
Molinaro, G., Dezza, I. C., Bühler, S. K., Moutsiana, C., & Sharot, T. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40971-x · Cited by 22
“Our research may also inspire technological advances that could provide pedagogical tools for children based on their information-seeking preferences, such as arti fi cial learning companions 52,53 .”
Improving human-robot interaction based on joint attention
Dağlarlı, E., Dağlarlı, S. F., Günel, G. Ö., & Köse, H. (2017) · Applied Intelligence · doi:10.1007/s10489-016-0876-x · Cited by 21
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“also have a breadth of research [11-13] on human robot interaction aimed at children.”
BackgroundCan Children Emulate a Robotic Non-Player Character's Figural Creativity?
Ali, S., Park, H. W., & Breazeal, C. (2020) · Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play · doi:10.1145/3410404.3414251 · Cited by 20
“Therefore, it is not surprising that social robots have been used as a psychological study tool, such as studying children’s emulation of growth mindset and curiosity while interacting with a social peer [19, 38].”
BackgroundResultSelf-citationRobots’ Social Behaviors for Language Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Wang, F., & Cheung, A. (2024) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/00346543231216437 · Cited by 22
“%) were included most, with junior middle school students of 10%, and the mixed grades of students of 12% (Akalin et al., 2014; gordon & Breazeal, 2015; gordon et al., 2015; Jacq et al., 2016; Kory-Westlund, 2019; Uluer et al., 2015).”
InfluentialCan Conversational Agents Change the Way Children Talk to People?
Hiniker, A., Wang, A., Tran, J., Zhang, M. R., Radesky, J. S., Sobel, K., & Hong, S.-S. (2021) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3459990.3460695 · Cited by 19
“Other work has demonstrated that anthropomorphic technologies can promote increased curiosity [28].”
BackgroundCreativity in Humans, Robots, Humbots
Lubart, T., Esposito, D., Gubenko, A., & Houssemand, C. (2021) · Creativity Theories – Research – Applications · doi:10.2478/ctra-2021-0003 · Cited by 23
“In addition to direct help provided during the human creative process, social robots have been used as tools to promote the learning of certain types of creativity-relevant behavior such as curiosity, perseverance or attention (Belpaeme et al., 2018; Gordon et al., 2015; Park et al., 2019).”
MethodSocial behaviour as an emergent property of embodied curiosity: a robotics perspective
Gordon, G. (2019) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2018.0029 · Cited by 18
Self-citationSoftware architecture for YOLO, a creativity-stimulating robot
Alves‐Oliveira, P., Gomes, S., Chandak, A., Arriaga, P., Hoffman, G., & Paiva, A. (2020) · SoftwareX · doi:10.1016/j.softx.2020.100461 · Cited by 3
Patricc: A Platform for Triadic Interaction with Changeable Characters
Gvirsman, O., Koren, Y., Norman, T., & Gordon, G. (2020) · Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3319502.3374792 · Cited by 18
“Most educational scenarios involved an additional screen, e.g. tablets, to supply the content and an object for joint attention [12, 33].”
BackgroundSelf-citationMulti3: Multi-Sensory Perception System for Multi-Modal Child Interaction with Multiple Robots
Tsiami, A., Koutras, P., Efthymiou, N., Filntisis, P. P., Potamianos, G., & Maragos, P. A. (2018) · Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation/Proceedings · doi:10.1109/icra.2018.8461210 · Cited by 17
“the development and enhancement of communicative abilities [12].”
BackgroundCuriosity Did Not Kill the Robot
Doering, M., Liu, P., Glas, D. F., Kanda, T., Kulić, D., & Ishiguro, H. (2019) · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3326462 · Cited by 17
“For instance, eliciting curiosity in humans was investigated for a robot that generated unpredictable responses (Law et al. 2017) and for a robot that demonstrated curiosity in its verbal expressions (Gordon et al. 2015).”
Backgroundvan den Berghe, R., Oudgenoeg‐Paz, O., Verhagen, J., Brouwer, S. M., de Haas, M., de Wit, J., Willemsen, B., Vogt, P., Krahmer, E., & Leseman, P. P. M. (2021) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2021.676248 · Cited by 21
“, 2019), and there is inconclusive evidence on the possible benefits of robots over other forms of technology (Han et al., 2008; Hyun et al., 2008; Leyzberg et al., 2012; Gordon et al., 2015; Kory Westlund et al., 2015; Zhexenova et al., 2020).”
BackgroundSocial robot advisors: effects of robot judgmental fallacies and context
Polakow, T., Laban, G., Teodorescu, A. R., Busemeyer, J. R., & Gordon, G. (2022) · Intelligent Service Robotics · doi:10.1007/s11370-022-00438-2 · Cited by 16
“They have been used to assist elders with cognitive and social impairments [5], to deliver psychosocial interventions [6] and support rehabilitation [7,8], as well as to assist chil-B dren in learning [2,3,9].”
MethodSelf-citationPredicting the Temporal and Social Dynamics of Curiosity in Small Group Learning
Paranjape, B., Bai, Z., & Cassell, J. (2018) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_31 · Cited by 16
“asking questions, making suggestions) can elicit curiosity in a child [16].”
BackgroundExploring the Role of Social Robot Behaviors in a Creative Activity
Hu, Y., Feng, L., Mutlu, B., & Admoni, H. (2021) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3461778.3462116 · Cited by 15
“Prior research has found that social robots with affective behaviors can improve children’s second language learning [28], growth mindset development [33], and curiosity [15].”
BackgroundDigital Interactive Quantitative Curiosity Assessment Tool: Questions Worlds
Tor, N., & Gordon, G. (2020) · International Journal of Information and Education Technology · doi:10.18178/ijiet.2020.10.8.1433 · Cited by 15
Self-citationLearning in Summer Camp with Social Robots: A Morphological Study
Levinson, L., Gvirsman, O., Gorodesky, I. M., Perez, A., Gonen, E., & Gordon, G. (2020) · International Journal of Social Robotics · doi:10.1007/s12369-020-00689-y · Cited by 16
“Moreover, social robots have been used as teachers using frontal lecture mode [49], one-on-one interaction [17,48] and recently also in small groups [30,41,50].”
Self-citationA Social Robot Reading Partner for Explorative Guidance
Zhang, X., Breazeal, C., & Park, H. W. (2023) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3568162.3576968 · Cited by 14
“Similarly, social robots have been used to help children become more creative and curious [2, 16].”
BackgroundSelf-citationSocial robots supporting children’s learning and development: Bibliometric and visual analysis
Zhang, N., Xu, J., Zhang, X., & Wang, Y. (2023) · Education and Information Technologies · doi:10.1007/s10639-023-12362-8 · Cited by 16
“Specifically, the integration of social robots is significant in promoting children’s learning motivation, sustaining attention and intellectual curiosity, and facilitating knowledge comprehension and retention (Belpaeme et al., 2018; Gordon et al., 2015; Heath et al., 2017).”
Ao, Y., & Yu, Z. (2022) · Education Research International · doi:10.1155/2022/1958317 · Cited by 18
“Among all robots researchers got access to, only those countenances in the form of screen accomplished various emotions, including shyness, laughs, frustration, yawning, thinking, and eye-gazing [50, 55].”
BackgroundPriming, enabling and assessment of curiosity
Sher, K. B.-T., Levi-Keren, M., & Gordon, G. (2019) · Educational Technology Research and Development · doi:10.1007/s11423-019-09665-4 · Cited by 14
Self-citationEditorial: Robot-Assisted Learning and Education
Augello, A., Daniela, L., Gentile, M., Ifenthaler, D., & Pilato, G. (2020) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2020.591319 · Cited by 17
“, 2019) with different roles, such as smart teaching platforms, assistants, and in some cases also as companions and co-learners (Brown and Howard, 2014; Gordon et al., 2015; Pandey and Gelin, 2016; Belpaeme et al., 2018).”
BackgroundHuman Perceptions of a Curious Robot that Performs Off-Task Actions
Walker, N., Weatherwax, K., Allchin, J., Takayama, L. A., & Çakmak, M. (2020) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3319502.3374821 · Cited by 13
“Robots have similarly been positioned as interactive peers aimed at increasing curiosity in children by displaying curious behaviors (e.g., wondering out-loud, asking questions, expressing desire to learn) for participants to mirror or to teach themselves [16, 48].”
BackgroundInfant-inspired intrinsically motivated curious robots
Gordon, G. (2020) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.010 · Cited by 13
Self-citationBoosting children's creativity through creative interactions with social robots
Alves‐Oliveira, P., Arriaga, P., Hoffman, G., & Paiva, A. (2016) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1109/hri.2016.7451871 · Cited by 13
Robots and AI: The Challenge to Interdisciplinary Theology
Green, E. (2018) · TSpace (University of Toronto) · Cited by 13
Kory-Westlund, J. M. (2023) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003189978-17 · Cited by 12
Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children
Ito, M., Cross, R., Dinakar, K., & Odgers, C. (2023) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/13654.001.0001 · Cited by 15
Learning a foreign language vocabulary with a companion robot
Zinina, A., Kotov, A. A., Arinkin, N. A., & Zaidelman, L. (2022) · Cognitive Systems Research · doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2022.10.007 · Cited by 17
Song, S., Baba, J., Okafuji, Y., Nakanishi, J., Yoshikawa, Y., & Ishiguro, H. (2023) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3568162.3577005 · Cited by 12
“These include information [8, 19], healthcare [17, 18], education [1, 5, 15], and domestic applications [12, 13, 20].”
BackgroundLong-Term Interaction with Relational SIAs
Kory-Westlund, J. M., Park, H. W., Grover, I., & Breazeal, C. (2022) · ACM eBooks · doi:10.1145/3563659.3563667 · Cited by 12
“…children will socially emulate the behaviors and attitudes of their social robot peer-like playmates with respect to modeling curiosity, affect, growth mindset, creativity, and linguistic expression [Kory and Breazeal 2014, Gordon et al. 2015, Kory-Westlund et al. 2017b, Park et al. 2017b, 2019].”
BackgroundSelf-citationCo-Creating With AI: How Communication Students Learn, Think, and Rely on Intelligent Systems
Lin, L. C.-S. (2025) · Journal of Educational Computing Research · doi:10.1177/07356331251385944 · Cited by 14
“Empirical studies reinforce this perspective, showing that AI can cultivate dispo-sitions and skills linked to creativity, such as curiosity (Gordon et al., 2015), persistence, attentiveness, and grit (Belpaeme et al., 2018).”
NaCanva: Exploring and Enabling the Nature-Inspired Creativity for Children
Yan, Z., Wu, Y., Luo, D., Zhang, C., Jin, Q., Chen, W., Wu, Y., Chen, X., Wang, G., & Mi, H. (2023) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3604262 · Cited by 11
“A CST that can properly guide has been shown to be effective in enhancing children’s learning results, stimulating interest and curiosity [37], engaging attention, as well as guiding them to develop a growth mindset [67].”
BackgroundArtificial Intelligence and Social-Emotional Learning: what relationship?
Indellicato, R. (2024) · Journal of Modern Science · doi:10.13166/jms/196765 · Cited by 16
Metadata
- Authors
- Gordon, G., Breazeal, C., & Engel, S.
- Affiliations
- MIT Media Lab (US)
- Williams College (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2015-03-02
- Pages
- 91-98
- OpenAlex
- W1994475294
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 21.69
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (publishedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Other univ. web domain
- Funders
- NSF (CCF-1138986)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- curiosity, social robots, children, exploratory behavior, peer interaction, autonomous robots, student motivation
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