In the National Geographic article, “Toddlers Bond With Robot, Study Shows,” by Stefan Lovgren describes a study done to observe the interactions between toddlers and robots. This study showed how during the early stages of childhood, toddlers treated a robot the same way as a regular human of their age. This study was done with toddlers instead of older children or adults because they do not have any thoughts about robots beforehand They do not have any preconceived notions of them, which is why the study was better suited for toddlers than any other age group. What you are about to read is a summary and interpretive analysis Socialization plays a tremendous role in our lives. We, as humans first learn about the cultures and lives that we should live, by the interactions we have with other humans. That is how socialization works: by interacting with others and developing our own opinions of the life that surrounds us.
And with the study done by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, this proves that the interactions that people have with certain objects will have an impact in the later stages in our lives The study included a classroom of 18-24 month old toddlers and a robot. The researchers were studying how the toddlers were going to interact with the robot. The robot was the same size as the toddlers, named QRIO. It is interesting how humans can develop socialization skills without judgment at an early age. I think this study is an example of how humans interact with each other during the early years of childhood. Children usually are not as discriminative towards different races, just like it was shown with this robot, Before this study was done, there has not been much successful research done between humans and robots. It was because humans did not have that much interest with the robots.
It got old fast, and that is why there was a study done with toddlers instead. The robot could laugh, sit down and do many other commands it was programmed to act like a human would, which is interesting. The toddlers were wary of the robot, at first, but later on they became more comfortable with it and touched the robot’s face. They treated the robot as an object, not like a human at the start of this study, but they then treated it like one of their peers. “‘The results imply that current robot technology is surprisingly close to achieving autonomous bonding and socialization with human toddlers,’ said Fumihlde Tanaka, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)” (Lovgren). Robots could be a part of our lives in the future, based on what happened in this study. Humans could learn at an early age, that robots are not harmful and can be helpful in our lives, the toddlers and the robot were the two main components of this study. The robot was treated as a stranger at first, but later on the toddlers came to grow to accept the robot it is like how some people accept each other how black and whites came to accept each other and become integrated as a whole.
And the interesting part of this study was the interactions that the toddlers had with the robot. “At first the toddlers would touch the robot on its face, but later on they would touch only on its hands and arms like they would with other humans“ (Lovgreny I think this quote is a good representation of how technology can become integrated within our culture. Socialization during the early stages of childhood will have a great impact in our future, We can grow to learn to accept new things and use things, like robots, in our lives. In conclusion, this study shows us how socialization works. The interactions we have with other people will reflect our lives in the long run, and in this case, the robot was a major component of this socialization, because the toddlers grew up and could later on and see robots as one of them. The toddlers learned and accepted the robot Robots could also be integrated in our society based on how well the toddlers reacted to it. Robots could benefit teachers in classrooms and interact with the children there are endless possibilities.
