Andreea Peca | Babes-Bolyai University (original) (raw)

Papers by Andreea Peca

Research paper thumbnail of Exploratory Study: Children's with Autism Awareness of being Imitated by Nao Robot

This paper presents an exploratory study designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (AS... more This paper presents an exploratory study designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) that investigates children's awareness of being imitated by a robot in a play/game scenario. The Nao robot imitates all the arm movement behaviors of the child in real-time in dyadic and triadic interactions. Different behavioral criteria (i.e., eye gaze, gaze shifting, initiation and imitation of arm movements, smile/laughter) were analyzed based on the video data of the interaction. The results confirm only parts of the research hypothesis. However, these results are promising for the future directions of this work.

Research paper thumbnail of Survey investigating ethical issues concerning Robot Enhanced Therapy for children with autism

Research paper thumbnail of Socially Inclusive E-learning Models in Companies

Conference and Workshop on Assistive Technology for People with Vision and Hearing Impairments, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Social Engagement of Children with Autism during Interaction with a Robot

ArXiv, 2020

Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition... more Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition. Even though some children with autism imitate spontaneously and other children with autism can learn to imitate, the dynamics of imitation is affected in the large majority of cases. Existing studies from the literature suggest that robots can be used to teach children with autism basic interaction skills like imitation. Based on these findings, in this study, we investigate if children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with an imitative robot (Fig 1) compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task.

Research paper thumbnail of Robot Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Disorders: Measuring Ethical Acceptability

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Do infants perceive the social robot Keepon as a communicative partner?

Infant Behavior and Development, 2016

This study investigates if infants perceive an unfamiliar agent, such as the robot Keepon, as a s... more This study investigates if infants perceive an unfamiliar agent, such as the robot Keepon, as a social agent after observing an interaction between the robot and a human adult. 23 infants, aged 9-17 month, were exposed, in a first phase, to either a contingent interaction between the active robot and an active human adult, or to an interaction between an active human adult and the non-active robot, followed by a second phase, in which infants were offered the opportunity to initiate a turn-taking interaction with Keepon. The measured variables were: (1) the number of social initiations the infant directed toward the robot, and (2) the number of anticipatory orientations of attention to the agent that follows in the conversation. The results indicate a significant higher level of initiations in the interactive robot condition compared to the non-active robot condition, while the difference between the frequencies of anticipations of turn-taking behaviors was not significant.

Research paper thumbnail of Are Children with ASD more Prone to Test the Intentions of the Robonova Robot Compared to a Human?

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2015

This study proposes an innovative device specifically designed for investigating the ability of c... more This study proposes an innovative device specifically designed for investigating the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to test the intention of a partner in a dyadic interactive game. Twenty one children with ASD were exposed to both a contingent and a noncontingent interaction condition with either a human agent or the Robonova robot as partners. The statistical analysis indicates a strong tendency toward a significant higher frequency of testing behaviors in the robot noncontingent condition and no difference between the two groups (robot/human) for the contingent condition. Children with ASD showed significantly more eye gaze to the robot compared to the human agent in both contingent and noncontingent conditions, but no difference in affect was found. The high level of initiations recorded in all conditions suggests that the game has a high motivational value for ASD children. Further longitudinal studies should investigate if such synchronous interaction games lead to improved shared intentionality in children with ASD.

Research paper thumbnail of A Survey of Expectations About the Role of Robots in Robot-Assisted Therapy for Children with ASD: Ethical Acceptability, Trust, Sociability, Appearance, and Attachment

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Enhancing My Keepon robot: A simple and low-cost solution for robot platform in Human-Robot Interaction studies

The 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2014

ABSTRACT Many robots capable of performing social behaviors have recently been developed for Huma... more ABSTRACT Many robots capable of performing social behaviors have recently been developed for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) studies. These social robots are applied in various domains such as education, entertainment, medicine, and collaboration. Besides the undisputed advantages, a major difficulty in HRI studies with social robots is that the robot platforms are typically expensive and/or not open-source. It burdens researchers to broaden experiments to a larger scale or apply study results in practice. This paper describes a method to modify My Keepon, a toy version of Keepon robot, to be a programmable platform for HRI studies, especially for robot-assisted therapies. With an Arduino microcontroller board and an open-source Microsoft Visual C# software, users are able to fully control the sounds and motions of My Keepon, and configure the robot to the needs of their research. Peripherals can be added for advanced studies (e.g., mouse, keyboard, buttons, PlayStation2 console, Emotiv neuroheadset, Kinect). Our psychological experiment results show that My Keepon modification is a useful and low-cost platform for several HRI studies.

Research paper thumbnail of How do typically developing children and children with autism perceive different social robots?

Computers in Human Behavior, 2014

ABSTRACT This study investigates the way children categorize different robots and their preferenc... more ABSTRACT This study investigates the way children categorize different robots and their preferences for certain robots. For this aim, a matching pictures game in which 6 social robots are to be matched to one of the categories: machines, humans, animals and toys, was developed and implemented on a tablet device. A mixed factorial design with one within-subjects variable (type of robots) and two between-subjects variables (type of development and gender) was used. The data suggest that both TD and ASD children perceive robots mainly as toys, while children with ASD also perceive robots as machines. A high diversity of preferences for different robots was revealed, but also a high preference for simplified designs, with exaggerated facial features. This study provides an innovative instrument for studying children’s perception about social robots, and offers valuable information, with implications on the design of social robots.

Research paper thumbnail of Children with autism social engagement in interaction with Nao, an imitative robot: A series of single case experiments

Interaction Studies, 2012

This paper presents a series of 4 single subject experiments aimed to investigate whether childre... more This paper presents a series of 4 single subject experiments aimed to investigate whether children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with the Nao robot, compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task. The Nao robot imitates gross arm movements of the child in real-time. Different behavioral criteria (i.e. eye gaze, gaze shifting, free initiations and prompted initiations of arm movements, and smile/laughter) were analyzed based on the video data of the interaction. The results are mixed and suggest a high variability in reactions to the Nao robot. The results are as follows: For Child2 and Child3, the results indicate no effect of the Nao robot in any of the target variables. Child1 and Child4 showed more eye gaze and smile/laughter in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the human partner and Child1 showed a higher frequency of motor initiations in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the baselines, but not with respect to the human...

Research paper thumbnail of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Make a Fruit Salad with Probo, the Social Robot: An Interaction Study

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2015

Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum... more Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum disorders. Thirty children with autism were included using a repeated measurements design. It was investigated if the children's interaction with a human differed from the interaction with a social robot during a play task. Also, it was examined if the two conditions differed in their ability to elicit interaction with a human accompanying the child during the task. Interaction of the children with both partners did not differ apart from the eye-contact. Participants had more eye-contact with the social robot compared to the eye-contact with the human. The conditions did not differ regarding the interaction elicited with the human accompanying the child.

Research paper thumbnail of Exploratory Study: Children's with Autism Awareness of being Imitated by Nao Robot

This paper presents an exploratory study designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (AS... more This paper presents an exploratory study designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) that investigates children's awareness of being imitated by a robot in a play/game scenario. The Nao robot imitates all the arm movement behaviors of the child in real-time in dyadic and triadic interactions. Different behavioral criteria (i.e., eye gaze, gaze shifting, initiation and imitation of arm movements, smile/laughter) were analyzed based on the video data of the interaction. The results confirm only parts of the research hypothesis. However, these results are promising for the future directions of this work.

Research paper thumbnail of Survey investigating ethical issues concerning Robot Enhanced Therapy for children with autism

Research paper thumbnail of Socially Inclusive E-learning Models in Companies

Conference and Workshop on Assistive Technology for People with Vision and Hearing Impairments, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Social Engagement of Children with Autism during Interaction with a Robot

ArXiv, 2020

Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition... more Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition. Even though some children with autism imitate spontaneously and other children with autism can learn to imitate, the dynamics of imitation is affected in the large majority of cases. Existing studies from the literature suggest that robots can be used to teach children with autism basic interaction skills like imitation. Based on these findings, in this study, we investigate if children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with an imitative robot (Fig 1) compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task.

Research paper thumbnail of Robot Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Disorders: Measuring Ethical Acceptability

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Do infants perceive the social robot Keepon as a communicative partner?

Infant Behavior and Development, 2016

This study investigates if infants perceive an unfamiliar agent, such as the robot Keepon, as a s... more This study investigates if infants perceive an unfamiliar agent, such as the robot Keepon, as a social agent after observing an interaction between the robot and a human adult. 23 infants, aged 9-17 month, were exposed, in a first phase, to either a contingent interaction between the active robot and an active human adult, or to an interaction between an active human adult and the non-active robot, followed by a second phase, in which infants were offered the opportunity to initiate a turn-taking interaction with Keepon. The measured variables were: (1) the number of social initiations the infant directed toward the robot, and (2) the number of anticipatory orientations of attention to the agent that follows in the conversation. The results indicate a significant higher level of initiations in the interactive robot condition compared to the non-active robot condition, while the difference between the frequencies of anticipations of turn-taking behaviors was not significant.

Research paper thumbnail of Are Children with ASD more Prone to Test the Intentions of the Robonova Robot Compared to a Human?

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2015

This study proposes an innovative device specifically designed for investigating the ability of c... more This study proposes an innovative device specifically designed for investigating the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to test the intention of a partner in a dyadic interactive game. Twenty one children with ASD were exposed to both a contingent and a noncontingent interaction condition with either a human agent or the Robonova robot as partners. The statistical analysis indicates a strong tendency toward a significant higher frequency of testing behaviors in the robot noncontingent condition and no difference between the two groups (robot/human) for the contingent condition. Children with ASD showed significantly more eye gaze to the robot compared to the human agent in both contingent and noncontingent conditions, but no difference in affect was found. The high level of initiations recorded in all conditions suggests that the game has a high motivational value for ASD children. Further longitudinal studies should investigate if such synchronous interaction games lead to improved shared intentionality in children with ASD.

Research paper thumbnail of A Survey of Expectations About the Role of Robots in Robot-Assisted Therapy for Children with ASD: Ethical Acceptability, Trust, Sociability, Appearance, and Attachment

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Enhancing My Keepon robot: A simple and low-cost solution for robot platform in Human-Robot Interaction studies

The 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2014

ABSTRACT Many robots capable of performing social behaviors have recently been developed for Huma... more ABSTRACT Many robots capable of performing social behaviors have recently been developed for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) studies. These social robots are applied in various domains such as education, entertainment, medicine, and collaboration. Besides the undisputed advantages, a major difficulty in HRI studies with social robots is that the robot platforms are typically expensive and/or not open-source. It burdens researchers to broaden experiments to a larger scale or apply study results in practice. This paper describes a method to modify My Keepon, a toy version of Keepon robot, to be a programmable platform for HRI studies, especially for robot-assisted therapies. With an Arduino microcontroller board and an open-source Microsoft Visual C# software, users are able to fully control the sounds and motions of My Keepon, and configure the robot to the needs of their research. Peripherals can be added for advanced studies (e.g., mouse, keyboard, buttons, PlayStation2 console, Emotiv neuroheadset, Kinect). Our psychological experiment results show that My Keepon modification is a useful and low-cost platform for several HRI studies.

Research paper thumbnail of How do typically developing children and children with autism perceive different social robots?

Computers in Human Behavior, 2014

ABSTRACT This study investigates the way children categorize different robots and their preferenc... more ABSTRACT This study investigates the way children categorize different robots and their preferences for certain robots. For this aim, a matching pictures game in which 6 social robots are to be matched to one of the categories: machines, humans, animals and toys, was developed and implemented on a tablet device. A mixed factorial design with one within-subjects variable (type of robots) and two between-subjects variables (type of development and gender) was used. The data suggest that both TD and ASD children perceive robots mainly as toys, while children with ASD also perceive robots as machines. A high diversity of preferences for different robots was revealed, but also a high preference for simplified designs, with exaggerated facial features. This study provides an innovative instrument for studying children’s perception about social robots, and offers valuable information, with implications on the design of social robots.

Research paper thumbnail of Children with autism social engagement in interaction with Nao, an imitative robot: A series of single case experiments

Interaction Studies, 2012

This paper presents a series of 4 single subject experiments aimed to investigate whether childre... more This paper presents a series of 4 single subject experiments aimed to investigate whether children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with the Nao robot, compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task. The Nao robot imitates gross arm movements of the child in real-time. Different behavioral criteria (i.e. eye gaze, gaze shifting, free initiations and prompted initiations of arm movements, and smile/laughter) were analyzed based on the video data of the interaction. The results are mixed and suggest a high variability in reactions to the Nao robot. The results are as follows: For Child2 and Child3, the results indicate no effect of the Nao robot in any of the target variables. Child1 and Child4 showed more eye gaze and smile/laughter in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the human partner and Child1 showed a higher frequency of motor initiations in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the baselines, but not with respect to the human...

Research paper thumbnail of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Make a Fruit Salad with Probo, the Social Robot: An Interaction Study

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2015

Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum... more Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum disorders. Thirty children with autism were included using a repeated measurements design. It was investigated if the children's interaction with a human differed from the interaction with a social robot during a play task. Also, it was examined if the two conditions differed in their ability to elicit interaction with a human accompanying the child during the task. Interaction of the children with both partners did not differ apart from the eye-contact. Participants had more eye-contact with the social robot compared to the eye-contact with the human. The conditions did not differ regarding the interaction elicited with the human accompanying the child.