This study examined the interactions between children and robots by observing whether children help a robot complete a task under five conditions to determine which elicited the most help. Each condition had an experimental and control group, with 20-32 children (even number of boys and girls) in each group. Visitors to a science centre located in a major Western Canadian city were invited to participate in an experiment set up at the centre. Their behaviors with a robot, a small 5 degree of freedom robot arm, were observed. Results of chi-square analyses indicated that children are most likely to help a robot after being introduced to it, X2(1) = 4.15, p = .04. This condition was the only one of five tested that demonstrated a significant increase in children's helping behaviors. These results suggest that an adult's demonstrated positive introduction to a robot impacts children's helping behaviors towards it.

Centuries ago, the existence of life was explained by the presence of a soul [1]. Known as animism, this term was re-defined in the 1970s by Piaget as young children's beliefs that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities. With the development of robots in the 21st century, researchers have yet to examine whether animism is apparent in children's impressions of robots. The purpose of this study was to examine children's perspectives about the cognitive, affective, and behavioral attributes of a robot. Visitors to a science centre located in a major Western Canadian city were invited to participate in an experiment set up at the centre. A total of 198 children ages 5 to 16 years (M = 8.18 years) with an approximate even number of boys and girls participated. Children were interviewed after observing a robot, a small 5 degree of freedom robot arm, perform a block stacking task. Answers to the six questions about the robot were scored according to whether they referenced humanistic qualities. Frequency and content analysis results suggest that a significant proportion of children ascribe cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics to robots.