{"id":398885,"date":"2022-09-01T10:21:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T08:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?post_type=selected&p=398885"},"modified":"2022-09-01T10:21:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T08:21:06","slug":"robots-are-good-at-detecting-mental-issues-in-children","status":"publish","type":"selected","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/selected\/robots-are-good-at-detecting-mental-issues-in-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Robots are good at detecting mental issues in children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, home schooling, financial pressures, and isolation from peers and friends impacted the mental health of many children. Even before the pandemic however, anxiety and depression among children in the UK has been on the rise. A new study suggests robots can be used to assess children\u2019s mental wellbeing, says the University of Cambridge in a press release<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A team of roboticists, computer scientists and psychiatrists from the University of Cambridge carried out a study with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13, and had a child-sized humanoid robot administer a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children were willing to confide in the robot, in some cases sharing information with the robot that they had not yet shared via the standard assessment method of online or in-person questionnaires. This is the first time that robots have been used to assess mental wellbeing in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say that robots could be a useful addition to traditional methods of mental health assessment, although they are not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health support. The\u00a0results<\/a>\u00a0will be presented today at the\u00a031st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)<\/a>\u00a0in Naples, Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children are drawn to technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professor Hatice Gunes, who leads the Affective Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory<\/a> in Cambridge\u2019s Department of Computer Science and Technology<\/a>, has been studying how socially-assistive robots (SARs) can be used as mental wellbeing \u2018coaches\u2019 for adults, but in recent years has also been studying how they may be beneficial to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter I became a mother, I was much more interested in how children express themselves as they grow, and how that might overlap with my work in robotics,\u201d said Gunes. \u201cChildren are quite tactile, and they\u2019re drawn to technology. If they\u2019re using a screen-based tool, they\u2019re withdrawn from the physical world. But robots are perfect because they\u2019re in the physical world \u2013 they\u2019re more interactive, so the children are more engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional methods not sufficient<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With colleagues in Cambridge\u2019s Department of Psychiatry, Gunes and her team designed an experiment to see if robots could be a useful tool to assess mental wellbeing in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are times when traditional methods aren\u2019t able to catch mental wellbeing lapses in children, as sometimes the changes are incredibly subtle,\u201d said Nida Itrat Abbasi, the study\u2019s first author. \u201cWe wanted to see whether robots might be able to help with this process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humanoid robot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the study, 28 participants between ages eight and 13 each took part in a one-to-one 45-minute session with a Nao robot \u2013 a humanoid robot about 60 centimetres tall. A parent or guardian, along with members of the research team, observed from an adjacent room. Prior to each session, children and their parent or guardian completed standard online questionnaire to assess each child\u2019s mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During each session, the robot performed four different tasks: 1) asked open-ended questions about happy and sad memories over the last week; 2) administered the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ); 3) administered a picture task inspired by the Children\u2019s Apperception Test (CAT), where children are asked to answer questions related to pictures shown; and 4) administered the Revised Children\u2019s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) for generalised anxiety, panic disorder and low mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children were divided into three different groups following the SMFQ, according to how likely they were to be struggling with their mental wellbeing. Participants interacted with the robot throughout the session by speaking with it, or by touching sensors on the robot\u2019s hands and feet. Additional sensors tracked participants\u2019 heartbeat, head and eye movements during the session.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Response time variability in robots can be perceived as human-like<\/div>
Humans behave and act in a way that other humans can recognize as human-like. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Enjoyable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Study participants all said they enjoyed talking with the robot: some shared information with the robot that they hadn\u2019t shared either in person or on the online questionnaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers found that children with varying levels of wellbeing concerns interacted differently with the robot. For children that might not be experiencing mental wellbeing-related problems, the researchers found that interacting with the robot led to more positive response ratings to the questionnaires. However, for children that might be experiencing wellbeing related concerns, the robot may have enabled them to divulge their true feelings and experiences, leading to more negative response ratings to the questionnaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children might see the robot as a confidante<\/p>Nida Itrat Abbasi<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the robot we use is child-sized, and completely non-threatening, children might see the robot as a confidante \u2013 they feel like they won\u2019t get into trouble if they share secrets with it,\u201d said Abbasi. \u201cOther researchers have found that children are more likely to divulge private information \u2013 like that they\u2019re being bullied, for example \u2013 to a robot than they would be to an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a substitute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say that while their results show that robots could be a useful tool for psychological assessment of children, they are not a substitute for human interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any intention of replacing psychologists or other mental health professionals with robots, since their expertise far surpasses anything a robot can do,\u201d said co-author Dr Micol Spitale<\/a>. \u201cHowever, our work suggests that robots could be a useful tool in helping children to open up and share things they might not be comfortable sharing at first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say that they hope to expand their survey in future, by including more participants and following them over time. They are also investigating whether similar results could be achieved if children interact with the robot via video chat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1780,"featured_media":516830,"template":"views\/single-selected.blade.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[8553],"tags":[128455,128457,9224,70830],"location":[55977],"internal_archives":[],"class_list":["post-398885","selected","type-selected","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-humanoid-robots","tag-mental-issues","tag-robots-en","tag-robots-2","location-united-kingdom"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Agnieszka-Wykowska_foto_Paper-_18869-1-1-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/elckevels\/","display_name":"Elcke Vels"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 1, 2022","modified":"Updated on September 1, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 1, 2022 10:21 am","modified":"Updated on September 1, 2022 10:21 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"category":{"linked":["Digital<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Digital<\/span>"],"slug":"category","name":"Categories"},"post_tag":{"linked":["Humanoid robots<\/a>","Mental issues<\/a>","robots<\/a>","robots<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Humanoid robots<\/span>","Mental issues<\/span>","robots<\/span>","robots<\/span>"],"slug":"post_tag","name":"Tags"},"language":{"linked":["EN<\/a>"],"unlinked":["EN<\/span>"],"slug":"language","name":"Tags"},"post_translations":{"linked":["pll_63106a26e2576<\/a>"],"unlinked":["pll_63106a26e2576<\/span>"],"slug":"post_translations","name":""},"location":{"linked":["United Kingdom<\/a>"],"unlinked":["United Kingdom<\/span>"],"slug":"location","name":"Locations"},"internal_archives":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"internal_archives","name":"Internal Archives"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected\/398885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/selected"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398885"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=398885"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=398885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}