Human emotions toward stimuli in the uncanny valley: laddering and index construction

Date

2015
Language
American English

Embargo Lift Date

Department

Committee Chair

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Year

2015

Department

School of Informatics

Grantor

Indiana University

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Found At

Abstract

Human-looking computer interfaces, including humanoid robots and animated humans, may elicit in their users eerie feelings. This effect, often called the uncanny valley, emphasizes our heightened ability to distinguish between the human and merely humanlike using both perceptual and cognitive approaches. Although reactions to uncanny characters are captured more accurately with emotional descriptors (e.g., eerie and creepy) than with cognitive descriptors (e.g., strange), and although previous studies suggest the psychological processes underlying the uncanny valley are more perceptual and emotional than cognitive, the deep roots of the concept of humanness imply the application of category boundaries and cognitive dissonance in distinguishing among robots, androids, and humans. First, laddering interviews (N = 30) revealed firm boundaries among participants’ concepts of animated, robotic, and human. Participants associated human traits like soul, imperfect, or intended exclusively with humans, and they simultaneously devalued the autonomous accomplishments of robots (e.g., simple task, limited ability, or controlled). Jerky movement and humanlike appearance were associated with robots, even though the presented robotic stimuli were humanlike. The facial expressions perceived in robots as improper were perceived in animated characters as mismatched. Second, association model testing indicated that the independent evaluation based on the developed indices is a viable quantitative technique for the laddering interview. Third, from the interviews several candidate items for the eeriness index were validated in a large representative survey (N = 1,311). The improved eeriness index is nearly orthogonal to perceived humanness (r = .04). The improved indices facilitate plotting relations among rated characters of varying human likeness, enhancing perspectives on humanlike robot design and animation creation.

Description

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

item.page.description.tableofcontents

item.page.relation.haspart

Cite As

ISSN

Publisher

Series/Report

Sponsorship

Major

Extent

Identifier

Relation

Journal

Rights

Source

Alternative Title

Type

Thesis

Number

Volume

Conference Dates

Conference Host

Conference Location

Conference Name

Conference Panel

Conference Secretariat Location

Version

Full Text Available at

This item is under embargo {{howLong}}