The humanoid robot can be effectively used to assess the mental state of children, according to scientists in Britain. In fact, it seems that a robot in several cases manages to bring to light potential psychological problems of children better than parents or experts.
The researchers (roboticists, IT specialists and psychiatrists) of the University of Cambridge, led by Turkish-born professor Hatis Gunes, head of the Emotional Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory, who made the announcement at an international conference in Naples, Italy (31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication RO-MAN), studied 28 eight- to 13-year-old children, with the help of a 60-centimeter-tall miniature humanoid robot Nao.
The robot asked questions from a psychological questionnaire to assess each child’s mental health. Parents and scientists watched the process unseen from an adjacent room. Children could interact with the robot, either by talking to it or by touching its arms and legs where touch sensors were located. All the children stated after the experiment that they enjoyed the conversation with the robot.
It was established, as reported by APE-MPE, that children were generally willing to confide in the robot even things that had not been shared with others until that moment, parents or doctors. Some children who had more intense negative feelings were able to talk about them more easily to the robot than to a human.
According to the researchers, “as long as the robot used was child-sized and non-threatening, the children trusted him and felt they would have no problem sharing secrets with him. And other studies have found that children are more likely to confide personal information, such as being bullied, to a robot than to an adult.”
The researchers said that in the future the robots could be a useful adjunct to traditional psychological assessment methods and reassured that they are not intended to replace mental health professionals.
They emphasized that “we have no intention of replacing psychologists or other mental health professionals with robots, because the experience of the latter far exceeds anything a robot can do. But as our research shows, bots can be a useful tool to help children open up and share things they might not otherwise feel comfortable saying.”
The researchers plan to expand their research in the future by including more children and tracking their relationship with the robots over a longer period of time. It will also be investigated whether similar positive effects can occur if children interact with robots not in person but through a video call.
The incidents of anxiety and depression in children were showing an upward trend even before the pandemicwhich worsened their mental health condition.
*File photo
Source: News Beast
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