Predictability is important to autistic individuals, and robots have been suggested to meet this need as they can be programmed to be predictable, as well as elicit social interaction. The effectiveness of robot-assisted interventions designed for social skill learning presumably depends on the interplay between robot predictability, engagement in learning, and the individual differences between different autistic children. To better understand this interplay, we report on a study where 24 autistic children participated in a robot-assisted intervention. We manipulated the variance in the robot’s behaviour as a way to vary predictability, and measured the children’s behavioural engagement, visual attention, as well as their individual factors. We found that the children will continue engaging in the activity behaviourally, but may start to pay less visual attention over time to activity-relevant locations when the robot is less predictable. Instead, they increasingly start to look away from the activity. Ultimately, this could negatively influence learning, in particular for tasks with a visual component. Furthermore, severity of autistic features and expressive language ability had a significant impact on behavioural engagement. We consider our results as preliminary evidence that robot predictability is an important factor for keeping children in a state where learning can occur.

中文翻译：

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自闭症儿童的可预测机器人——机器人行为的差异、自闭症儿童特征的异质性以及儿童与机器人的互动

可预测性对自闭症患者很重要，并且已经建议使用机器人来满足这一需求，因为它们可以被编程为可预测的，并引发社交互动。为社交技能学习而设计的机器人辅助干预措施的有效性可能取决于机器人可预测性、学习参与度以及不同自闭症儿童之间的个体差异之间的相互作用。为了更好地理解这种相互作用，我们报告了一项研究，其中 24 名自闭症儿童参与了机器人辅助干预。我们操纵机器人行为的差异作为改变可预测性的一种方式，并测量了儿童的行为参与、视觉注意力以及他们的个人因素。我们发现孩子们会在行为上继续参与活动，但随着时间的推移，当机器人难以预测时，可能会开始减少对活动相关位置的视觉关注。相反，他们越来越多地开始远离活动。最终，这可能会对学习产生负面影响，特别是对于具有视觉成分的任务。此外，自闭症特征的严重程度和表达语言能力对行为参与有显着影响。我们认为我们的结果是初步证据，表明机器人的可预测性是让孩子保持学习状态的重要因素。自闭症特征的严重程度和表达语言能力对行为参与有显着影响。我们认为我们的结果是初步证据，表明机器人的可预测性是让孩子保持学习状态的重要因素。自闭症特征的严重程度和表达语言能力对行为参与有显着影响。我们认为我们的结果是初步证据，表明机器人的可预测性是让孩子保持学习状态的重要因素。