Response Tendencies of Four-Year-Old Children to Communicative and Non-Communicative Robots

This study examined response tendencies in 4-year-old Japanese children (N = 45) to yes-no questions asked by a communicative, or a non-communicative robot. The children watched a video of a robot that was either responsive (communicative condition), or unresponsive (non-communicative condition) to human actions. Then, all the children watched a video of the same robot asking yes-no questions pertaining to familiar and unfamiliar objects. The children in both conditions exhibited a nay-saying bias to questions about unfamiliar objects, with children in the non-communicative condition tending to show a stronger nay-saying bias than children in the communicative condition. Children's response tendencies towards questions asked by humans and other agents are discussed.