How caregivers use robot animals to engage dementia patients
A new study reveals how dementia care workers use robotic animals to reach residents who are increasingly difficult to engage. The research, based on video analysis of real care home interactions, shows that staff must actively manage these three-way relationships—and that robots work best when caregivers treat them differently than they treat people.
Originaltitel: Making robots matter in dementia care: Conceptualising the triadic interaction between caregiver, resident and robot animal
<p>While previous research studies have focused on either caregivers’ or residents’ perception and use of social robots, this article offers an empirical and theoretical examination of joint activities in triadic human–robot interaction. The symptomatology of dementia creates an asymmetrical relation wherein the impetus to employ a robot often originates from the caregiver. Drawing on field work and video recorded interactions in dementia care homes, the article investigates how caregivers draw on embodied resources to involve residents and robot animals in interaction. The analysis demonstrates how caregivers promote commitment and encounter resistance with residents. We draw on the theory of sociomaterial interactionism to study situated interaction between bodies in a meaning-generating process. By re-conceptualising the theoretical notions of manipulation and recruitment, the article offers an approach for studying orientations that distinguish between reciprocity of agential objects. We show that caregivers usually distinguish between interactions with people and machines by anticipating a specific response from the robots (manipulation), while they invite participation in a broader sense from residents (recruitment). Social friction arises, however, if caregivers act upon the residents as embodied objects in manipulative ways.</p>