Abstract

As robots are believed to soon populate human environments, they have received enthusiastic support in the scientific community. Most research aims at designing robots for assisting humans in daily lives, healthcare, or elderly care. However, there is also a less explored way of using robots – robots as tools to understand human cognition. We take this approach in our lab in examining human socio-cognitive mechanisms in interaction. In this talk, I will present the work from our lab where we have examined whether and how social signals, such as gaze contact, initiated by a humanoid robot, influence attentional orienting and social decision making. Our results showed, both at the behavioral and neural level, that social gaze modulates attention and efficiency in decision making. In addition, I will present our work related to the question of whether and under what conditions humans treat robots as social partners and intentional agents. I will also discuss the topic of value-aware social robots. The talk will conclude with a case of how fundamental research can be applied to societal needs – I will share our results of robot-assisted training for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. These results will then be discussed in a broader context of societal implications of research on social robots.