Expressing uncertainty in Human-Robot interaction

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
en
Date
2020
Authors
Bartneck, Christoph
Moltchanova, E.
Abstract

Most people struggle to understand probability which is an issue for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) researchers who need to communicate risks and uncertainties to the participants in their studies, the media and policy makers. Previous work showed that even the use of numerical values to express probabilities does not guarantee an accurate understanding by laypeople. We therefore investigate if words can be used to communicate probability, such as “likely” and “almost certainly not”. We embedded these phrases in the context of the usage of autonomous vehicles. The results show that the association of phrases to percentages is not random and there is a preferred order of phrases. The association is, however, not as consistent as hoped for. Hence, it would be advisable to complement the use of words with numerical expression of uncertainty. This study provides an empirically verified list of probabilities phrases that HRI researchers can use to complement the numerical values.

Description
Citation
Bartneck C., Moltchanova E. (2020). Expressing uncertainty in Human-Robot interaction. PLOS ONE. 15(7). e0235361-e0235361.
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::08 - Information and Computing Sciences::0806 - Information Systems::080602 - Computer-Human Interaction
Field of Research::20 - Language, Communication and Culture::2001 - Communication and Media Studies::200199 - Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified
Rights
Copyright:©2020 Bartneck, Moltchanova. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided the original author and source are credited.