Communication using robots: a Perception-action scenario in moderate ASD

ABSTRACT

ASD children are characterised by a lack of intentionality. We analysed nonverbal and verbal information, associated with heart rate and emotional feeling, respectively, in ASD and neurotypical children. Analogies of heart rate between ASD and neurotypical children were expressed when the human was ‘passive’ actor and the robot was ‘active’ actor; disanalogies were released when the human was ‘active’ actor. Only ASD children reported better emotional feeling ‘after’ than ‘before’ the interaction with the robot. These results suggest that ASD children might be more reliable to low-level intentionality represented by robots, than to high-level intentionality associated with humans.

KEYWORDS:

• Perception-action process
• autonomic nervous system
• ASD children
• neurotypical children
• robots
• intentionality

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the participants and their parents as well as the Director and the Teachers of elementary public and private schools in Gifu and in Tokyo Japan.

Notes

1. Measured in beats per minute (bpm) using a wearable optical heart rate monitoring device. The physiological heart rate limits correspond to 95 bpm (±30) at the age of 6 to 7 years.