Giulia PerugiaEindhoven University of Technology | TUE · Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences
Giulia Perugia
Doctor of Philosophy
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41
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Introduction
Dr. Giulia Perugia received a BA in Literature and Linguistics from the University of Roma Tre in 2011, a MSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Siena in 2013, and a double degree PhD in Assistive Technologies from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC, Spain) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, Netherlands) in 2018. From 2018 to 2021, she was a postdoc at Uppsala Social Robotics Lab (Sweden). Currently, she is an Assistant professor in the HTI group at TU/e.
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Publications
Publications (41)
The present study was aimed at determining the age and gender distribution of the humanoid robots in the ABOT dataset, and providing a systematic data-driven formalization of the process of age and gender categorization of humanoid robots. We involved 153 participants in an online study and asked them to rate the humanoid robots in the ABOT dataset...
Many studies have investigated the effect of robot genderedness on the attribution of gender stereotypes to a robot, often with mixed results. This paper aims to overcome some of the limitations of previous research. We adopted a mixed study design with stereotypical trait type (communion vs. agency) or task type (stereotypical female vs. stereotyp...
Research has shown that a pet robot could constitute a leverage point to open a communication channel in a triadic relation between a person with dementia and others. Additionally, tangible light projections have been shown to capture the attention of people with dementia and contribute to social interaction. Following these findings, we designed a...
This study focused on investigating the content, structure, and predictors of robots' stereotypes. We involved 120 participants in an online study and asked them to rate 80 robots on communion, agency, suitability for female and suitability for male tasks. In line with the stereotype content model, we discovered that robots' stereotypes are describ...
The discussion around gendering humanoid robots has gained more traction in the last few years. To lay the basis for a full comprehension of how robots’ “gender” has been understood within the Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) community—i.e., how it has been manipulated, in which contexts, and which effects it has yielded on people’s perceptions and in...
With the increasing prevalence of social robots which support diverse social identity performance (see e.g., Furhat Robotics “unlimited amount of characters, all in one robot“ ) comes a need to consider both the risks and opportunities of designing robots which embody particular human-like traits and characteristics. Gender represents one such trai...
Advancements in artificial intelligence and (social) robotics raise pertinent questions as to how these technologies may help shape the society of the future. The main aim of the chapter is to consider the social and conceptual disruptions that might be
associated with social robots, and humanoid social robots in particular. This chapter starts by...
Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) are critical factors that need to be considered when developing AI and robotic technologies for people. The lack of such considerations exacerbates and can also perpetuate existing forms of discrimination and biases in society for years to come. Although concerns have already been voiced around the globe, th...
The discussion around the problematic practice of gendering humanoid robots has risen to the foreground in the last few years. To lay the basis for a thorough understanding of how robot's "gender" has been understood within the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) community - i.e., how it has been manipulated, in which contexts, and which effects it has y...
Engaging people with dementia (PWD) in meaningful activities is the key to promote their quality of life. Design towards a higher level of user engagement has been extensively studied within the human-computer interaction community, however, few extend to PWD. It is generally considered that increased richness of experiences can lead to enhanced en...
In this paper, we introduce an experimental design to investigate the influence of a robot's gender on the dialogue content authored by crowd-workers online. We build upon a previously developed crowd-authoring pipeline but exchange the original task description with one that explicitly reveals the robot as being masculine, feminine, or gender neut...
Discrimination and bias are pressing issues of many AI and robotics applications. These outcomes may derive from limited datasets that do not fully represent society as a whole or from the AI scientific community's western-male configuration bias. Although being a pressing issue, understanding how robotic systems can replicate and amplify inequalit...
While creativity has been previously studied in Child-Robot Interaction (cHRI), the effect of regulatory focus on creativity skills has not been investigated. This paper presents an exploratory study that, for the first time, uses the Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) to assess children's creativity skills in an educational context with a social robot....
The design of natural human–robot dynamics is a key aspect for ensuring a successful and efficient lasting human–robot interaction (HRI). In particular, it is expected that a robot deployed in human populated environments not only needs to be able to successfully complete a task, but also needs to show social intelligence to engage people in effect...
In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people’s spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of...
In this study, we employed Furhat to investigate how people attribute gender to a robot and whether the attribution of gender might elicit stereotypes already at a first impression. We involved 223 participants in an online study and asked them to rate 15 of Furhat’s predefined faces in terms of femininity, masculinity, communion, and agency, and i...
Personalised experiences with service robots positively affect people’s perception of the robot and, consequently, foster the success of the interaction. This implies that people need to share their personal information with the robot, which could let people feel uneasy when such interactions happen in public spaces or in the presence of strangers....
This paper presents a forthcoming study on the relationship between perceptual cues and context of use in the attribution of gender to a robot. We hypothesize that the context of use might drive the attribution of gender when robots have minimal gender cues. To test this hypothesis, we plan to run a 2x2 between subjects study with minimal gender cu...
In educational scenarios involving social robots, understanding the way robot behaviors affect children’s motivation to achieve their learning goals is of vital importance. It is crucial for the formation of a trust relationship between the child and the robot so that the robot can effectively fulfill its role as a learning companion. In this study...
Understanding the way different robot’s strategies affect children’s perceptions of social robots is crucial for a trustworthy child-robot relationship. This paper presents a preliminary study on whether motivational strategies based on Regulatory Focus Theory and goal attainment affect children’s perception of a virtual social robot when solving a...
In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people's spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of...
Over the past years, extensive research has been dedicated to developing robust platforms and data-driven dialog models to support long-term human-robot interactions. However, little is known about how people's perception of robots and engagement with them develop over time and how these can be accurately assessed through implicit and continuous me...
Over the past years, extensive research has been dedicated to developing robust platforms and data-driven dialogue models to support long-term human-robot interactions. However, little is known about how people's perception of robots and engagement with them develop over time and how these can be accurately assessed through implicit and continuous...
Empirical investigations on the uncanny valley have almost solely focused on the analysis of people’s non-interactive perception of a robot at first sight. Recent studies suggest, however, that these uncanny first impressions may be significantly altered over an interaction. What is yet to discover is whether certain interaction patterns can lead t...
Facial mimicry is crucial in social interactions as it communicates the intent to bond with another person. While human-human mimicry has been extensively studied, human-agent and human-robot mimicry have been addressed only recently, and the individual characteristics that affect them are still unknown. This paper explores whether the humanlikenes...
Facial mimicry is crucial in social interactions as it communicates the intent to bond with another person. While human-human mimicry has been extensively studied, human-agent and human-robot mimicry have been addressed only recently, and the individual characteristics that affect them are still unknown. This paper explores whether the humanlikenes...
Facial expressions of emotions influence the perception of robots in first encounters. People can judge trustwor-thiness, likability, and aggressiveness in a few milliseconds by simply observing other individuals' faces. While first impressions have been extensively studied in adult-robot interaction, they have been addressed in child-robot interac...
Social robots can be used to motivate children to engage in learning activities in education. In such contexts, they might need to persuade children to achieve specific learning goals. We conducted an exploratory study with 42 children in a museum setting. Children were asked to play an interactive storytelling game on a touchscreen. A Furhat robot...
One of the most effective ways to improve quality of life in dementia is by exposing people to meaningful activities. The study of engagement is crucial to identify which activities are significant for persons with dementia and customize them. Previous work has mainly focused on developing assessment tools and the only available model of engagement...
Numerous studies in social psychology have shown that familiarization across repeated interactions improves people's perception of the other. If and how these findings relate to human-robot interaction (HRI) is not well understood, even though such knowledge is crucial when pursuing long-term interactions. In our work, we investigate the persistenc...
Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that affects cognition, producing a reduction in thinking, problem-solving, and mnemonic abilities, functioning, preventing affected people to care for themselves and carry out activities of daily living (e.g., self-feeding, dress oneself), and psychosocial well-being, causing the appearance of disorders of t...
Engagement in activities is of crucial importance for people with dementia. State of the art assessment techniques rely exclusively on behavior observation to measure engagement in dementia. These techniques are either too general to grasp how engagement is naturally expressed through behavior or too complex to be traced back to an overall engageme...
The study of engagement is central to improve the quality of care and provide people with dementia with meaningful activities. Current assessment techniques of engagement for people with dementia rely exclusively on behavior observation. However, novel unobtrusive sensing technologies, capable of tracking psychological states during activities, can...
Engagement in activities is crucial to improve quality of life in dementia. Yet, its measurement relies exclusively on behavior observation and the influence that behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) have on it is overlooked. This study investigated whether quantity of movement, gauged with a wrist-worn accelerometer, could be a...
In this paper, we present a novel tool to measure engagement in people with dementia playing board games and interacting with a social robot, Pleo. We carried out two studies to reach a comprehensive inventory of behaviours accounting for engagement in dementia. The first one is an exploratory study aimed at modelling engagement in cognitive board...
Motivational and emotional disorders (i.e. apathy and depression) are very frequent in dementia and might greatly affect the positive psychological state experienced during social HRI. We conducted a six-weeks study in two nursing homes comparing the affective states that two playful activities, board cognitive games and social robot play (Pleo), w...