- 學位論文
恐怖谷理論再探：機器人外觀如何影響不同年齡層使用者的喜好、個性判斷、及服務或陪伴功能的接受度
The Uncanny Valley Revisited: Age-Related Differences and the Effect of Function Type
摘要
隨著人口出生率下降和老齡化加劇，解決照護長者勞動力短缺的問題日趨嚴峻。值此智慧製造的工業4.0時代，機器人可以成為有效協助長者日常生活的替代方案。然而，先前研究顯示長者對機器人的接受程度較年輕人低，推測其中一個原因是機器人的外觀所致。恐怖谷理論指的是當機器人變得更像人類時，人們會有更正向的評價，但這個趨勢只能達到某個程度；當機器人和人類外觀達到高度相像時，人們的喜好程度會急遽下降，形成一個恐怖谷的曲線。基於過去支持恐怖谷的結果主要來自年輕人，未必能適用於各年齡層，本研究檢驗恐怖谷是否也適用於老年人和中年人。我們也檢驗人們對不同功能的機器人（陪伴型或服務型）的接受度是否會根據機器人的外觀而改變，以及機器人的個性是否與其功能的接受度有關。我們讓年輕人（N = 80，年齡18-39歲）、中年人（N = 87，年齡40-59歲）、和長者（N = 88，年齡60-87歲）一次看一組從總數84張機器人的照片中選出的單一張機器人臉，並對機器人照片進行印象的評估以及關於機器人的使用意圖。結果顯示年輕人和中年人出現恐怖谷，然而老年人沒有表現出此效果—無論機器人提供哪種功能，他們都偏好由外型像人的機器人提供。除權威性外，依機器人外觀所評估的個性分數與功能接受度均呈現正相關。這些發現意味著機器人的設計應該依據不同年齡的使用者及其提供的服務類型改變外觀設計。
並列摘要
Due to declined birthrate and the increasing aging population, shortage of caregiving labor force has become a critical issue worldwide. Introducing robotic products could provide an effective way to help older adults’ daily lives. However, previous studies indicated that older adults’ acceptance of robots was lower than younger adults. One possible reason of this lower acceptance of robots might be robot appearance. The Uncanny Valley Phenomenon (UVP) refers to the phenomenon that people rate more positively as robots become more humanlike, but only up to a certain point; as it approaches near-perfect similarity of human appearance, likeability drops and forms an uncanny valley. Nonetheless, evidence for the UVP were mainly from younger adults. We therefore examined whether the UVP is also applicable for older and middle-aged adults in the present study. We also examined whether the acceptance of functions (companion vs. service) would change based on robot appearance, and whether perceived personalities have any relation with the acceptance of robot function. We asked younger (N= 80, age 18-39), middle-aged (N= 87, age 40-59), and older (N= 88, age 60-87) adults to view each picture of a set of robot pictures selected from a totally 84 robots and evaluate their impression on each robot and the intention of use regarding robot functions. UVP was found in younger and middle-aged adults; however, older adults did not show UVP. They preferred humanlike over non-humanlike robots, regardless of robot function. Scores on each personality－except for authoritativeness－showed positive correlations with the acceptance of functions. These findings suggest that the design of assistive robots should take UVP into consideration by customizing robot appearance in accordance with the function provided to different age groups.