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Sampling of Scholarship in Affective Computing and HRI

 

Affect Psychology in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
A Short Literature Review - Introduction to the Field


Social robotics has been exploring the psychological side of affect theory for many years, mostly through small-scale studies aimed at encouraging humans to engage more willingly with robots. As a cultural technologist, I became genuinely curious about the societal, legal, and broader cultural effects of humans interacting with robots. During my PhD journey, I developed a special interest in the emotional bonds people form with social robots, especially given the success of affective computing techniques. When I share my research, I often get asked for recommendations on literature about how affect is applied in social robotics. To help with that, I've included a snippet of the key literature I built upon in my dissertation on this topic. (Keep in mind, this is just a small sample of the many resources out there. What I've provided is mainly an introduction to the field.)

Literature: Affect

  • Ahmed, Sara. 2010. “Happy Objects.” The Affect Theory Reader, edited by Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth, 29–51. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
  • Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Cornell University Press.
  • Cvetkovich, Ann. 2014. “Affect - (ACS Keywords).” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, edited by Burgett, Bruce and Hendler, Glenn, Second edition. New York; London: New York University Press.
  • Gregg, Melissa, and Gregory J. Seigworth, eds. 2010. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Massumi, Brian. 2015. Politics of Affect. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity.
  • Seigworth, Gregory J., and Melissa Gregg. 2010. “An Inventory of Shimmers.” The Affect Theory Reader, edited by Gregory J. Seigworth and Melissa Gregg, 1–25. Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Literature: Affect in Robotics

  • Gockley, Rachel, Reid Simmons, and Jodi Forlizzi. 2006. “Modeling Affect in Socially Interactive Robots.” In ROMAN 2006 - The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 558–63. Hatfield: IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2006.314448.
  • Peter, Christian, and Russell Beale, eds. 2008. Affect and Emotion in Human-Computer Interaction: From Theory to Applications. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4868. Heidelberg; New York: Springer.
  • Walters, Michael L., Dag S. Syrdal, Kerstin Dautenhahn, René te Boekhorst, and Kheng Lee Koay. 2008. “Avoiding the Uncanny Valley: Robot Appearance, Personality and Consistency of Behavior in an Attention-Seeking Home Scenario for a Robot Companion.” Autonomous Robots, 24 (2): 159–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-007-9058-3.

Literature: Affect in Social Robot Design

  • Breazeal, Cynthia. 2003. “Toward Sociable Robots.” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Socially Interactive Robots, 42 (3): 167–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8890(02)00373-1.
  • Breazeal, Cynthia L. 2002. Designing Sociable Robots. Intelligent Robots and Autonomous Agents. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
  • Broadbent, Elizabeth. 2017. “Interactions With Robots: The Truths We Reveal About Ourselves.” Annual Review of Psychology 68 (1): 627–52. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-043958.
  • Scassellati, Brian. 2002. “Theory of Mind for a Humanoid Robot.” Autonomous Robots, 12 (1): 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013298507114.

Literature: Affect and Human-Social Robot Interaction

NOTE: The studies here focus on the psychological strand of affect studies. Cultural theorists are notably missing from Affect in HRI Scholarship. 

  • Dereshev, Dmitry, David Kirk, Kohei Matsumura, and Toshiyuki Maeda. 2019. “Long-Term Value of Social Robots through the Eyes of Expert Users.” In, 1–12. CHI ’19. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300896.
  • Dosso, Jill A, Ela Bandari, Aarti Malhotra, Gabriella K Guerra, Jesse Hoey, François Michaud, Tony J Prescott, and Julie M Robillard. 2022. “User Perspectives on Emotionally Aligned Social Robots for Older Adults and Persons Living with Dementia.” Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering, 9 (January):205566832211083. https://doi.org/10.1177/20556683221108364.
  • Dziergwa, Michał, Mirela Kaczmarek, Paweł Kaczmarek, Jan Kędzierski, and Karolina Wadas-Szydłowska. 2018. “Long-Term Cohabitation with a Social Robot: A Case Study of the Influence of Human Attachment Patterns.” International Journal of Social Robotics, 10 (1): 163–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-017-0439-2.
  • Foster, Mary Ellen. 2024. “A Socially Assistive Robot Using Automated Planning in a Paediatric Clinical Setting.” Ongoing Research Update presented at the TAHRI 2024, Boulder, CO & Virtual, March 9. TAHRI.org.
  • Jeon, Myounghoon, Chung Hyuk Park, Yunkyung Kim, Andreas Riener, and Martina Mara. 2021. “Editorial: Contextualized Affective Interactions With Robots.” Frontiers in Psychology, 12 (November). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.780685.
  • Leung, Angela Y. M., Ivy Y. Zhao, Shuanglan Lin, and Terence K. Lau. 2023. “Exploring the Presence of Humanoid Social Robots at Home and Capturing Human-Robot Interactions with Older Adults: Experiences from Four Case Studies.” Healthcare, 11 (1): 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11010039.
  • Levy, David. 2007. Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships. Harper-Collins e-books.


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