Comprehensible instructions from assistive robots for older adults with or without cognitive impairment

Figures & data

Figure 1. The information support robot, “PaPeRo” (NEC). Colors are visible in the online version of the article (Inoue et al., 2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/TAD-120357.

Table 1. The instruction patterns (IPs) of the robot.

	Task A	Task B	Task C
IP1	1. Please take daytime medicine.	1. Please measure blood pressure and record its value on the paper.	1. Please clean up the room according to the sign.
IP2	1. At first, please take battled water from the fridge, and pull it to the glass. 2. Next, please pick up daytime medicine and take it.	1. At first, please wrap the cuff on your upper arm, and push a start button. 2. Next, please record the blood pressure value on the paper.	1. At first, please move the tea pot and the tea cup to the kitchen Table 2. Next, please hang up the jacket, fold up pants, and put them back in the closet.
IP3	1. At first, please take bottled water from the fridge. 2. Next, please pull water to the glass. 3. Finally, please pick up daytime medicine and take them.	1. At first, please wrap the cuff on your upper arm. 2. Next, please push a start button. 3. Finally, please record the blood pressure value on the paper.	1. At first, please move the tea pot and the tea cup to the kitchen Table 2. Next, please hang up the jacket and put it back in the closet. 3. Finally, please, fold up pants and put them back in the closet.

The robot simply informed in IP1. On the other hand, it presented one by one in the IP2 and IP3 respectively according to this table.

Figure 2. The layout of the experiment room. The participant was always required to have a seat in front of the “PaPeRo” in order to carefully listen to what the robot talked. The experimental goods such as the medicine box and the apparatus for measuring blood pressure were placed on the table. Similarly, the jacket and the two pants were put on the bed.

Table 2. Each task was separated in several steps.

	Task A	Task B	Task C
Processes of tasks	1. Taking the bottled water from the fridge, 2. Pulling water to the glass, 3. Finding the medicine box, 4. Opening the medicine box, 5. Selecting the daytime cell, 6. Picking up the daytime pills, 7. Drinking the daytime pills.	1. Selecting the apparatus for measuring blood pressure, 2. Wrapping the manchette around her upper arm, 3. Pushing the start button, 4. Reading the measured result, 5. Writing the values down on the indicator paper.	1. Finding the instructing sign for clearing the experiment room, 2. Silent reading the sign, 3. moving the tea pot and the tea cup to the kitchen table, 4. Hanging up the jacket, 5. putting the jacket back in the closet, 6. Folding up the two pants, 7. putting the pants back in the closet.

Task A and Task C were 7 steps, whereas Task B was 5 steps.

Table 3. It shows the mean of PR (%) in each task and instruction (n = 19).

	Task A	Task B	Task C
IP1	72.6 ± 21.3	77.6 ± 35.3	58.8 ± 35.7
IP2	96.8 ± 10.0	92.1 ± 16.8	89.5 ± 16.8
IP3	97.9 ± 6.3	98.7 ± 5.7	91.6 ± 18.0

Most participants completed tasks with IP2 and IP3.

Figure 3. Scatter plot for correlation between MMSE points and PR with IP1. There was a significant positive correlation in Tasks B and C, while there was no correlation in Task A.

• = 1 person, ° = 2 persons, ▲ = 4 persons, ● = 5 persons.

Table 4. Summary of multiple regression analysis for variable predicting PR with IP1 for each task (n = 19).

	Task A			Task B			Task C
Variable	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β
Orientation	4.04	2.91	0.50	4.72	3.43	0.35	−0.44	5.03	−0.032
Attention	−4.79	3.18	−0.67	2.97	3.74	0.25	−4.31	5.49	−0.36
Language comprehension	−8.77	4.25	−1.19	6.48	5.00	0.53	2.68	7.35	0.22
Repetition	33.66	11.74	3.42*	3.80	13.82	0.23	9.28	20.32	0.56
Naming	−29.79	13.17	−1.82	−6.87	15.50	−0.25	−2.57	22.78	−0.093
Constructions	−0.018	3.99	−0.001	23.54	4.70	0.14	16.13	6.90	0.65
Memory	−3.72	4.17	−0.30	11.12	4.91	0.54	3.97	7.21	0.19*
Calculations	37.65	20.21	0.81	−19.82	23.79	−0.26	−12.92	34.96	−0.17
Reasoning similarities	6.68	6.67	0.28	2.80	7.85	0.071	−3.94	11.54	−0.099
Judgment	−16.8	6.04	−0.93*	−9.47	7.11	−0.32	0.34	10.45	0.11
R^2		0.68			0.84			0.66
F		1.70			4.14*			1.54

*p < 0.05.

Figure 4. It shows the scatter plot for multiple regression analysis in Task B with IP1.

Inoue, T., Nihei, M., Narita, T., Onoda, M., Ishiwata, R., Mamiya, I., Shino, M., Kojima, H., Ohnaka, S., Fujita, Y., & Kamata, M. (2012). Field-based development of an information support robot for persons with dementia. Technology and Disability, 24(4), 263–271. https://doi.org/10.3233/TAD-120357

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