Robot Expressive Behaviour and Autistic Traits

Peter E. McKenna (Heriot-Watt University), Ayan Ghosh (Heriot-Watt University), Ruth Aylett (Heriot-Watt University), Frank Broz (Heriot-Watt University), Ingo Keller (Heriot-Watt University), Gnanathusharan Rajendran (Heriot-Watt University)

Abstract

The present experiment used a task-based approach to examine participants social signal recognition of an EMYS robot head and whether autistic traits, measured by the Autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), mediated this recognition. In line with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research, we predicted that participants with high AQ scores would produce more social signal recognition errors. In the task participants (N = 57) offered RFID-tagged objects to a fullbodied FLASH robot (called Alyx) and Alyx autonomously reacted with a either an approval or disapproval expression. Data analysis found no relationship between autistic traits and recognition accuracy. The findings are discussed in terms of experimental design and autistic traits.