Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Wilcox, Teresa

Abstract

Robotics have advanced to include highly anthropomorphic (human-like) entities. A novel eye-tracking paradigm was developed to assess infants’ sensitivity to communicative gestures by human and robotic informants. Infants from two age groups (5-9 months, n = 25; 10-15 months, n = 9) viewed a robotic or human informant pointing to locations where events would occur during experimental trials. Trials consisted of three phases: gesture, prediction, and event. Duration of looking (ms) to two areas of interest, target location and non-target location, was extracted. A series of paired t-tests revealed that only older infants in the human condition looked significantly longer to the target location during the prediction phase (p = .036). Future research is needed to tease apart what components of the robotic hand infants respond to differentially, and whether a robotic hand can be manipulated to increase infants’ sensitivity to social communication gestures executed by said robotic hand.

Extent

62 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (MA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013724

Format

pdf

Download

Share

COinS