Publication Abstract
Eyewitnesses Are Misled by Human but Not Robot Interviewers
Bethel, C. L., Eakin, D., Anreddy, S., Stuart, J. K., & Carruth, D. W. (2013). Eyewitnesses Are Misled by Human but Not Robot Interviewers. 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction 2013. Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
This paper presents research results from a study to
determine whether eyewitness memory was impacted by a human
interviewer versus a robot interviewer when presented
misleading post-event information. The study was conducted with
101 participants who viewed a slideshow depicting the events of a
crime. All of the participants interacted with the humanoid robot,
NAO, by playing a trivia game. Participants were then
interviewed by either a human or a robot interviewer that
presented either control or misleading information about the
events depicted in the slideshow. This was followed by another
filler interval task of trivia with the robot. Following the
interview and robot interactions, participants completed a paper and pencil post-event memory test to determine their recall of the
events of the slideshow. The results indicated that eyewitnesses
were misled by a human interviewer (t(46) = 2.79, p < 0.01, d =
0.83) but not by a robot interviewer (t(46) = 0.34, p > 0.05). The
results of this research could have strong implications for the
gathering of sensitive information from an eyewitness about the
events of a crime.