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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?
haha I hope so, or instead of imaginary friends we will start to have robotic friends. Not sure which one is creepier.
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.
But if you're not an informed behaviorist, this might seem interesting ;)
BEHAVIORIST?!?!! Please. I'm a comparative cognitivist. If you wan't behaviorism, Dr. Monkey is your man.
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.
. 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.
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: it's how I roll. you can thank me by discontinuing your point racketeering :-)
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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