A Secondary Analysis of Study Data towards Correlation Strengths of Anthropomorphism and Negative Attitudes Towards Robots under Extraneous Cognitive Load

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze data from a study [10] on cognitive load dependency of anthropomorphism towards exploring the strength of the association of negative attitudes towards robots and anthropomorphism under cognitive load induction by a secondary task. A cooperative pick-and-place study with a non-social robot arm was conducted as main task and number memorization as secondary task inducing extraneous cognitive load. Even though ANCOVA results are insignificant, correlations show an interesting trend of weaker association of anthropomorphism and negative attitudes towards emotions in interaction with robots under high cognitive load. So, the positive association of cognitive load and anthropomorphism to some extent seems to compensate the negative association of negative attitudes and anthropomorphism, which may be explained by lack of inhibition of the default social cognitive pathway in the human brain due to depletion of cognitive resources. Thus, both parameters should be considered in robot design, especially in applications, where the impact of anthropomorphism on collaboration may pose performance or safety issues, e.g. close interaction, and further research is suggested.

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