Test
Problem statement and research questions
Provide support to Patients with Dementia (PwD) who currently are dependent on their caretakers and significant other to go for walks. This is outlined in more detail in the Objectives section. The presumed baseline is that PwD walk under supervision of their loved ones or caretakers. To reach our objective and support our claims, we would like to put forward the following research questions:
- Does walking with the MiRo increase the perceived satisfaction?
- Does walking with the MiRo increase the perceived autonomy?
- To which degree do users express familiarity with the MiRo?
- How do users react to snoezelen with a moving robot?
Method
To this effect, we would like to invite users to participate in a usability study. In the study, we will assess the first two research questions by dividing the participants into two groups: one with a caretaker and one with a MiRo. The former group will enact the activity of walking in the current setting and the latter group will do the equivalent with the robot. Afterwards, both groups are assessed by means of Likert-scales to measure the increase.
Participants
PwD (or students playing the part of a PwD)
Experimental design
The first two questions can be answered using a within-subject design in order to be able to measure the increase per subject. The learning effect will be mitigated, because the two juxtaposed settings are vastly different. So, there is no advantage for the participant to be subjected to two conditions serially.
The third question is posed as a exploratory question. There will be no alternative condition. The expression of familiarity will be recorded in the form of audio recording which are to be transcribed afterwards. Naturally, the recordings will be deleted subsequently to comply with GDPR.
The last question is also exploratory. Where subjects are divided into t groups according to a between-subject design with the purpose of exposing one group to a stationary robot
Tasks
Walking the dog
Snoezelen
Measures
Attentiveness
Questionnaire/(semi-structured) Interview (see (Neerincx et al., to appear))