A unique research assistant on the Mississippi State University campus is helping with studies that could potentially rewrite rules when it comes to counteracting bullying and possibly solving crimes involving children. He stands about two and one-half feet tall and is dressed from head to toe in plastic. Nao — pronounced “Now” — is a humanoid robot manufactured in France. There are actually four Nao robots at the university, being used to explore the use of robots as intermediaries for gathering sensitive information from children. With Nao, MSU researchers are on a mission to discover if children respond differently in interviews with robots as opposed to humans.
Dr. Cindy Bethel, Dr. Deborah Eakin and Dr. David May at MSU head a team that includes Dr. Melinda Pilkinton and others in conducting studies under a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation.
“We are very interested in finding out whether children are more likely to disclose their bullying experiences to robots than humans,” said May. He is a professor in MSU’s Department of Sociology and serves as coordinator of the Criminology Program.
Even with very skilled interviewers, humans have their own biases about what happened to a child, explained Eakin, a cognitive psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychology.
“A robot doesn’t bring that human bias,” she said.
The team’s studies, conducted in phases, involve eyewitness memory and interviews related to bullying. In numerous instances, eyewitness accounts are often the most compelling evidence used by authorities and even jurors. However, past research has shown that inaccurate eyewitness memory can occur when misleading information is introduced in post-event interviews.
A quest for answers
In an MSU study with college-aged adults, misleading information about a witnessed event impaired memory for that event when presented by a human interviewer, said Eakin. That effect was eliminated when the misleading information was presented by a robot interviewer.
“We wanted to see if the same thing would happen with kids,” Eakin continued.
In a different study conducted as part of the grant research, children ages 8 to 12 were asked questions about what bullying is and what they have seen or experienced. Half of the children had a human interview; half had the robot interview. Findings are being analyzed for eventual publication.
“I can generally say that the kids seemed to enjoy the robot interviewer and may think about the robot the same as a person, rather than as non-human, the way the college-aged students seemed to do,” Eakin said. As a memory researcher, the fact that children’s memories are being negatively impacted by the interview process is egregious and something to be avoided, she added.
May said, “I’m most excited by the impact that robot interviewers could have in the area of bullying reporting. We’ve known for several years that many children are bullied at school and do not report it to any adult, including their parents. In my opinion, anything that we can do to increase the proportion of children that report bullying is well worth exploring. Robots are one of those options.”
Work conducted under the grant is very interdisciplinary, May noted. That allows each researcher to bring his or her strengths and expertise to the table, whether their field is sociology, psychology or computer science and engineering.
In the STaRS Lab
Dr. Cindy L. Bethel is director of the Social, Therapeutic and Robotic Systems (STaRS) Lab at MSU. She is passionate about exploring technology’s potential for positive impact. In addition to the Nao project, work in the STaRS Lab includes development of Therabot, a robotic dog as a therapy support system for individuals undergoing therapy, as well as research into robot integration with SWAT teams. Bethel and her students are also exploring creation of a two-way communication device that could help locate people trapped in collapsed buildings and similar scenarios.
“My personal experiences led me to want to develop robots that can assist people, especially those that have had to face significant challenges such as post-traumatic stress, domestic violence and maltreatment,” Bethel said.
The goal of providing a mechanism or technology that would allow children to have a voice and feel comfortable sharing an experience led her toward the interview project.
“So many children are too afraid to speak out and share what is happening to them,” she remarked. Often a child’s trust has been betrayed by an adult authority figure. A technology more like a peer, or toy-like, may provide a less threatening way to share information.
The ultimate hope, researchers said, is that Nao may some day help law enforcement better solve crimes that involve children. That is powerful motivation.
“Hopefully we can make a difference in a lot of children’s lives,” Bethel said.
How to help
The research team is building a database of children ages 8 to 12 willing to participate in studies. Research sessions take one to two hours; volunteers are compensated at $10 to $25 per session, depending on time involved. For more information, contact Eakin at 662-325-5804 or email [email protected], or sign up at bulldogstudies.com.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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