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Press Release
I want to see what you see: Babies treat 'social robots' as sentient beings


Thanks to University of Washington for this article.

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Will
UC Davis
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:00 pm CDT

how will this affect the babies in the long term?  Will they start to interact with robots as if they are humans?  That would be weird!

At what point will the babies realize that the robots are in fact just robots with limited social abilities?


Brian Krueger, PhD
Columbia University Medical Center
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:08 pm CDT

I bet they'd figure it out pretty quickly :P


Will
UC Davis
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:25 pm CDT

haha I hope so, or instead of imaginary friends we will start to have robotic friends.  Not sure which one is creepier.


Jason Goldman
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:39 pm CDT

Babies are willing to treat geometric SHAPES as agents, so this robot thing isn't so interesting. But, then again, human adults are willing to find agency in shapes as well, under the right circumstances.


Brian Krueger, PhD
Columbia University Medical Center
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:42 pm CDT

But if you're not an informed behaviorist, this might seem interesting ;)


Jason Goldman
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 12:53 pm CDT

BEHAVIORIST?!?!! Please. I'm a comparative cognitivist. If you wan't behaviorism, Dr. Monkey is your man.


Will
UC Davis
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 1:07 pm CDT

But a baby will not seek out a shape for social interaction.  That is what makes this interesting.  They are seeking out interaction with an inanimate object.

I guess they didn't see if the baby would seek out interaction with a shape after watching an adult interact with the shape.


Dr Becca, Ph.D.
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 1:23 pm CDT

Jason Goldman said:

. But, then again, human adults are willing to find agency in shapes as well, under the right circumstances.

I saw a demonstration of this in a talk in grad school, I think about autism. We saw a video of some triangles and squares moving around a box, and while autistic people just see moving shapes, most non-autistic people will think, "the square is chasing the triangle, like it wants to be friends".

OK, maybe the friend part was just me.


Jason Goldman
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 2:06 pm CDT

Becca: you are exactly right, and that is exactly the study I'm refering to. I'm going to blog this. Stay tuned.

And, Will: a baby *will* prefer shapes for interaction, when given the choice between, for example, a "helper" and a "hinderer"


Nikkilina
Washington University School of Medicine
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 2:38 pm CDT

You're pretty handy to have around, Goldman!


JanedeLartigue
UC Davis
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 2:42 pm CDT

I look forward to reading your blog on this.


Jason Goldman
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Thu, Oct 14, 2010, 4:41 pm CDT

@Nikkilina: it's how I roll. you can thank me by discontinuing your point racketeering :-)


PepGiraffe
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Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 9:22 am CDT

I think the conclusion they come to in the release is a specious. After all, a human adult acted as if the robot were human and the robot acted human. With that set up, for the baby, why would there be any difference between a robot and a human in costume?

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