'Most of the city is evacuating': Gridlock on Alberta highway after evacuation order in Fort McMurray
Four Fort McMurray neighbourhoods were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday as a wildfire gets closer to the city.
The impacts of virtual learning on school-age kids is one area researchers have examined in recent years, but now, new research goes a step further, suggesting kids may be more susceptible to the teachings of robots over humans.
A new study published in the Journal of Cognition and Development by researchers from Concordia University has found that kindergarten-aged children prefer to be taught by a competent robot as opposed to an incompetent human - the children's age being an influential factor to this research finding.
“This data tells us that the children will choose to learn from a robot even though they know it is not like them. They know that the robot is mechanical,” said Anna-Elisabeth Baumann, the paper’s lead author and a PhD candidate, in the study press release.
The study researchers observed two groups of Canadian children, one a group of three-year-olds and the other a group of five-years-olds, as they participated in virtual meetings through Zoom.
On the screen, they watched a video of a woman and a small robot, named Nao, who had human-like characteristics such as a head, face and body.
The children watched as the woman labelled objects incorrectly (calling a car a book, for example), while Nao correctly labelled objects.
The next part of the experiment involved the two “teachers” presenting the children with items that they would likely not recognize, including the top of a turkey baster, a roll of twine and a silicone muffin container. This time, the woman and Nao both labelled these unfamiliar items with made up terms like “mido,” “toma,” “fep” and “dax.”
The kids were asked to label the items based on what they just watched. At which point it became evident that the group of five-year-olds were more influenced by Nao than the teacher, as they repeated the robots nonsensical object labels.
“We can see that by age five, children are choosing to learn from a competent teacher over someone who is more familiar to them — even if the competent teacher is a robot,” said Baumann.
On the other hand, the three-year-olds did not seem to prefer the human versus the robot, as they showed no difference in preference for the nonsense words of the objects.
To observe how the robot resembling a human affected the outcome of the study, the researchers swapped in a new robot, this time a small truck-shaped robot called Cozmo.
But the same results occurred as with Nao, suggesting that the makeup of the robot had no significant impact on how children trusted the robot teacher.
Some may wonder whether the kids fully understood that what they were learning from was, in fact, non-human.
But when the kids were asked if the robots were made of biological organs or mechanical gears, the response from the five-year-olds indicated an understanding that robots are mechanically created, suggesting this had no influence on the outcome.
The three-year-olds were confused by the question, and assigned both biological and mechanical internal parts to the robots.
There have been other studies examining similar areas of research – such as looking at the design of school curriculum using artificial Intelligence (AI), or research on how social robots could be implemented in the classroom.
But this study is the first of its kind, comparing a human to a robot in order to observe how children differentiate the two, as well as to determine how trust strategies emerge, according to the researchers.
This research is important, as robots can be used as tools to understand how kids can learn from both humans and non-humans, said Elizabeth Goldamn, Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow and contributor to the study, in the press release.
“As technology use increases, and as children interact with technological devices more, it is important for us to understand how technology can be a tool to help facilitate their learning.”
Four Fort McMurray neighbourhoods were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday as a wildfire gets closer to the city.
Saskatchewan RCMP have revealed that a historic sexual assault investigation has led to the discovery of alleged crimes against children dating back to 2005.
Less than a week after two public sculptures featuring a livestream between Dublin, Ireland, and New York City debuted, 'inappropriate behaviour' in real-time interactions between people in the two cities has prompted a temporary shutdown.
After a final frame that saw the visiting Vancouver Canucks claw their way back and tie the game late, a slap shot from the point by Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard with 38 seconds left (until what seemed like certain overtime) iced the 3-2 victory for Edmonton to knot the series.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker railed against Pride month, working women, President Biden's leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and abortion during a commencement address at Benedictine College last weekend.
King Charles III has unveiled the first portrait of the monarch completed since he assumed the throne, a vivid image that depicts him in the bright red uniform of the Welsh Guards against a background of similar hues.
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
The province has released more information on its plan to break up Alberta Health Services and replace it with four sector-based health agencies.
The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than US$1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, two congressional aides said Tuesday.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.