This study examined whether the group study of telepresence robot operation influences the well-being of older adults preparing for remote work. In all, 22 older adults (aged 65-81 years) learned remote shop-assistant tasks using a mobile telepresence robot (Temi) and a remote cashier interface. The participants were assigned to either an individual condition with one-on-one instruction $(n=\text{1 2})$ or a group condition, where one or two other participants were present and interaction among them was possible $(n=10)$. Subjective well-being was measured before Week 1 and after Week 2, and affective well-being was measured before and after each week session. Changes in subjective well-being did not significantly differ between groups. In contrast, affective well-being showed a clear group effect: positive affect was higher in individual conditions, whereas negative affect was higher in group conditions. Exploratory age correlations further suggested that the age-related gains in well-being observed in the individual condition were attenuated in the group condition. These results indicate that interaction alone may not create a favorable learning environment for older adults; interaction design should account for evaluation apprehension and social comparison.
Socially assistive robots hold promise for delivering health guidance, yet the impact of robot communication style on user acceptance across the lifespan remains underexplored. We examined how robotic dominance and age-related factors influence the willingness to seek advice from robots during a health-literacy task. Participants received advice from the robot, and we measured their advice-seeking and advice-following behaviors, subjective evaluations of the robot, and psychological status. Results revealed that while advice-following rates were unaffected by dominance level, lowdominance robots were perceived as significantly more competent and sociable, and increased overall advice-seeking willingness. When the high- and low-dominance robots were presented simultaneously (forced choice), younger adults showed a significant preference for the low-dominance robot. Conversely, older adults provided generally higher evaluations for both robots. The only circumstance in which the highdominance robot was preferred was among individuals relying on disengagement coping strategies, who showed a higher likelihood of selecting it for domestic use. These findings underscore the necessity of personalizing robotic communication strategies based on user age and coping mechanisms to ensure long-term acceptance.
Emotional understanding is a key component of Theory of Mind (ToM), yet many autistic children struggle with recognizing and interpreting emotions. At the same time, they tend to enjoy interacting with robots, which are perceived as predictable and less socially complex. This pilot study investigates the use of age-tailored socially assistive robots in a rehabilitation setting to support emotion comprehension and enhance social engagement in autistic children. A novel approach was employed, combining social stories with multimodal expressive cues to train multiple components of emotional understanding within a single session. Six verbally able children without higher support needs participated in 4-8 individual sessions of 30 minutes over two months. Activities were differentiated by developmental stage: younger children worked with explicit, context-based emotional scenarios, while older children engaged with implicit emotional cues embedded in social narratives. Preliminary results suggest improved recognition of emotions, increased conversations with adults, and empathetic responses, suggesting the therapeutic potential of age-sensitive robot interaction design.
