Investigation of Interaction between Children and an Utterance-Output Device Focused on Personality

Abstract

: An utterance-output device, such a smart speaker, has been focused on. The device, which talks automatically or by being operated remotely, may support parenting at home. For parenting supports, it is important for children to recognize common ground in conversation with the device. This would contribute to children being interested in the device and interacting actively. Meanwhile, interactions between children, who have various personality, and utterance-output devices have not been fully investigated yet. This study investigated how personality affected children’s cognition of common ground in conversation with the utterance-output device and their behaviors. The results indicated that the less nervous, more emotionally stable, or more adaptable to communication different from that at home children are, the more closely they engage with the device, or spontaneously they clean toys based on receiving proposals from the devices. These would be related to children’s cognition of common ground in conversation through pretending.