Dyadic Stance in Natural Language Communication with a Teachable Robot

Tricia Chaffey, Hyeji Kim, Emilia Nobrega, Nichola Lubold, Heather Pon-Barry

Abstract: Learning companion robots can provide personalized learning interactions to engage students in many domains including STEM. For successful interactions, students must feel comfortable and engaged. We describe an experiment with a learning companion robot acting as a teachable robot; based on human-to-human peer tutoring, students teach the robot how to solve math problems. We compare student attitudes of comfort, attention, engagement, motivation, and physical proximity for two dyadic stance formations: a face-to-face stance and a side-by-side stance. In human-robot interaction experiments, it is common for dyads to assume a face-to-face stance, while in human-to-human peer tutoring, it is common for dyads to sit in side-by-side as well as face-to-face formations. We find that students in the face-to-face stance report stronger feelings of comfort and attention, compared to students in the side-by-side stance. We find no difference between stances for feelings of engagement, motivation, and physical proximity.