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What is Caregiver–Infant

Chapter 61
Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication
The credo of social robotics is to develop machines which adapt in a natural and intuitive manner to humans. To realize this goal often developmental psychology is used. Researchers try to implement “curiosity” and the “imitation drive” into robots, to make them “learn” from humans. One example is the Cynthia Breazeal’s robot torso Kismet. Its relation to the human (expert or user) is modeled after early infant-caregiver interactions. Following developmental psychology Breazeal (2002) claims that the “initial perceptual and behavioral responses bias an infant to interact with adults and encourage a caregiver to interact with and care for him. … She [The caregiver; JW] allows the infant to experiment and learn how his responses influence her” (Breazeal 2002, p. 37; my emphasis). Breazeal argues for this model because she sees the mother-child relationship as the simplest human relationship, a quite amazing approach. The model itself evokes the picture of a stereotypical bourgeois nuclear family, where the housewife dedicates her time to the education of the only child. On the one hand, modeling human-robot relations as caregiver-infant relations is the outcome of the quite limited cognitive abilities and behavior of today’s robots. Introducing the robot as a baby or young child is a way to naturalize these limitations. On the other hand, it is part of the process to reconfigure human-machine relations as social and to hide its immanent technical aspects. This concept works with a very reduced and stereotypical–if not sexist–image of the future (female) everyday user of social robots.
Published in Chapter:
Human-Robot Interaction
Jutta Weber (Technical University Carolo Wilhelmina of Brunswick, Germany)
Copyright: © 2008 |Pages: 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-863-5.ch061
Abstract
Some people regard the personal mobile robot as a candidate for the next digital revolution as it might become a future ubiquitous tool and everyday partner of humans. This new “socio-emotional” robot is supposed to conduct dialogue, to develop social competencies and to support users in everyday life. In this chapter, I sketch out the epistemological, ontological and techno-material groundings of personal service robotics which is based on new models of human-machine interaction like caregiver-infant or pet-owner. I discuss the conversational paradigm in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) with its problematic concepts of “pre-given” social mechanisms, uninformed users as well as its new understanding of sociality as service.
Full Text Chapter Download: US $37.50 Add to Cart
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Chapter 61
Human-Robot Interaction
The credo of social robotics is to develop machines which adapt in a natural and intuitive manner to humans. To realize this goal often developmental psychology is used. Researchers try to implement “curiosity” and the “imitation drive” into robots, to make them “learn” from humans. One example is the Cynthia Breazeal’s robot torso Kismet. Its relation to the human (expert or user) is modeled after early infant-caregiver interactions. Following developmental psychology Breazeal (2002) claims that the “initial perceptual and behavioral responses bias an infant to interact with adults and encourage a caregiver to interact with and care for him. … She [The caregiver; JW] allows the infant to experiment and learn how his responses influence her” (Breazeal 2002, p. 37; my emphasis). Breazeal argues for this model because she sees the mother-child relationship as the simplest human relationship, a quite amazing approach. The model itself evokes the picture of a stereotypical bourgeois nuclear family, where the housewife dedicates her time to the education of the only child. On the one hand, modeling human-robot relations as caregiver-infant relations is the outcome of the quite limited cognitive abilities and behavior of today’s robots. Introducing the robot as a baby or young child is a way to naturalize these limitations. On the other hand, it is part of the process to reconfigure human-machine relations as social and to hide its immanent technical aspects. This concept works with a very reduced and stereotypical–if not sexist–image of the future (female) everyday user of social robots.
Published in Chapter: Human-Robot Interaction; From: Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication
Full Text Chapter Download: US $37.50 Add to Cart
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