Effects of praise from a social robot on task persistence in 18- to 24-month-old children

These findings suggest that praise delivered by a social robot is associated with greater task persistence in children aged 18-24 months. Additionally, the positive association between task persistence and time spent looking at the agent suggests that children's social attention may contribute to sustained engagement during the task. More broadly, the results point to the possibility that social robots may be relevant to aspects of early childhood engagement, beyond the specific task-persistence behavior examined in this study.