Inhibitory control (IC) is a key component of the self-regulatory processes. However, studies focusing on social signals through which adults can support the development of IC are still lacking. Gaze direction is a strong social signal that might play a role in development of IC skills, as it convey a wealth of information about others’ attention focus and their emotional and mental states. The present study examined whether adult’s gaze can support IC skills in pre-school children. To this end, 4 to 5 years old children took part in the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS) associated with a gaze cueing paradigm. During the HTKS task, the adult oriented the gaze on the target body part (congruent trials) or on the body part toward which the child should inhibit his/her response (incongruent trials). In a within-subjects experiment, the HTKS task associated with gaze cueing paradigm was administered by both a human examiner and a humanoid robot (iCub) to test whether (1) the gaze cue facilitates or impairs responses (2) observing the robot may affect children’s task performance similarly to observing another human . The results are discussed in the context of using robots to test (and possibly train) inhibitory control skills.
Lo sviluppo del controllo inibitorio nei bambini: effetti del gaze cueing in uno studio con esseri umani e robot umanoidi
Gandolfi Elena;Usai Maria Carmen
2022-01-01
Abstract
Inhibitory control (IC) is a key component of the self-regulatory processes. However, studies focusing on social signals through which adults can support the development of IC are still lacking. Gaze direction is a strong social signal that might play a role in development of IC skills, as it convey a wealth of information about others’ attention focus and their emotional and mental states. The present study examined whether adult’s gaze can support IC skills in pre-school children. To this end, 4 to 5 years old children took part in the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS) associated with a gaze cueing paradigm. During the HTKS task, the adult oriented the gaze on the target body part (congruent trials) or on the body part toward which the child should inhibit his/her response (incongruent trials). In a within-subjects experiment, the HTKS task associated with gaze cueing paradigm was administered by both a human examiner and a humanoid robot (iCub) to test whether (1) the gaze cue facilitates or impairs responses (2) observing the robot may affect children’s task performance similarly to observing another human . The results are discussed in the context of using robots to test (and possibly train) inhibitory control skills.
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