Abstract
Abstract The increasing presence of computers in society calls for the need to better understand how differently the sociocognitive mechanisms involved in natural human relationships operate in human–robot interactions. In the present study, we investigated one fundamental aspect often neglected in the literatures on psychology and educational sciences: how the source of information, either human or computer, influences its perceived reliability and modulates cognitive and motivational processes. In Experiment 1, participants performed a reasoning task that presented cues following participants’ errors, helping them to succeed in the task. Using two levels of task difficulty, we manipulated the source of the cues as either a human or a computer. In addition to task accuracy, Experiment 2 assessed the impact of the information source on socially and nonsocially related dimensions of achievement goals. In Experiment 1, participants who believed that they received cues from a human teacher performed better on difficult trials compared to those who believed that they received cues from a computer. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings by additionally showing that the nature of the source only had an impact on the socially related dimension of achievement goals, which in turn mediated the source’s effect on reasoning performance. For the first time, the present study showed modulations of cognitive and motivational processes resulting from the manipulation of the type of information source aimed at providing assistance with a reasoning task. The findings highlight the importance of considering the social and motivational aspects involved in human–computer interactions.
Highlights
In the decade, students will increasingly interact with computers in class, in the form of assistive technologies known as tutoring systems
We conducted a mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA), with accuracy in the first and second trials (Table 1) as 5.1 Experiment 2
We conducted separate mixed-design ANOVA on test performance in the second trials to compare the experimental groups for each level of difficulty
Summary
Students will increasingly interact with computers in class, in the form of assistive technologies known as tutoring systems. This approach has obscured a fundamental question – which is the other side of the coin – namely, the question of top-down processes: the evaluation of the information considering its source. Presenting information for the purpose of learning or helping from a computer or algorithm compared to the same information from human agents could result in different sociocognitive processing of the information in terms of reliability evaluation or trustworthiness. Epley and colleagues [4], discussing the anthropomorphism process, argued that one strategy would be to reduce the uncertainty associated with the situation, especially (in line with Nass and Moon) when the actions of the nonhuman agent are unexpected
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