Reading with Robots: A Research-through-Design Study

Abstract In recent years, there has been a significant decline in reading motivation among Swedish school children. This research-through-design study explored if and how talking to a social robot about books might help to motivate fourth-grade students (10–11 years old) to read more. The study followed a three-phase design process, in which we designed and tested robot book talks in a school class with 19 students, using a Wizard of Oz set-up with a Furhat robot. In the book talks, the robot’s level of engagement varied between passive and active. In the passive mode, which functioned as a baseline, the robot asked general questions but made relatively little effort to make sure the students were concentrating on the task. In the active mode, on the other hand, based on design ideas developed throughout the design process, the robot asked questions directly related to the students’ books and guided them through their task. The results indicate that the interaction with the robot was appreciated by most students and that robot book talks have potential to contribute to fulfilling basic psychological needs of competence and relatedness, which according to self-determination theory are fundamental to motivation and well-being.