Method

We are doing a mixed-method approach. We are producing qualitative data from focus groups by asking them how they liked to interact with the robot. By measuring how successfully we achieved our claims we will create questionnaires which will be quantitative data.

Participants

Due to covid restrictions, we have to “simulate” our robot-human interaction with elderly people affected by dementia. For that reason, we will ask roughly eighteen people how will pretend to be people with different dementia types, the loved ones or the caregiver. We will create three groups / six people in each. In each group, one person will “play” the role of a caregiver, one plays the loved one, and the remaining four people will do the role of the person with dementia. In each group, the “onset of dementia played” should be different. In Group A, people act like they just have early-onset symptoms, but they are almost fully functioning. They sometimes get confused, but these moments swiftly pass and they are back to their true selves. In Group B, people should have a harder time keeping track of things, forgetting about tasks, people and memories should be common. These people’s life is constantly affected by the disease, but they sometimes have clear moments when they are back to their original selves before dementia. In Group C people have late-onset of dementia. Constant confusion is more common than moments of clarity which usually doesn't last long. People should have a hard time keeping track of anything, and remembering is not something that’s even possible anymore.

Experimental design

The experiment will be conducted by simulating the interaction between the patient, robot and other actors. The group of participants will be divided into 3 subgroups that simulate patients in different stages of dementia. The participants will be given artificial memory loss by forcing them to remember a large number of songs they have to associate with certain activities. From each group one of the participants will be asked to play the caregiver and another participant will take the roll of loved one. With these participants the interactions between the actors will be tested. The interactions are described in the design patterns. 

When the participant playing the role of patient has learned the association between the music pieces and activities the robot will start playing certain pieces of music. The participant has to recall the correct activity associated with the music piece. When this is wrong the loved one can step in and call to remind the        

Tasks

Event: Activity 

Event: Quiz

Measures

More details regarding the qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Procedure

do the task, consent form, questionnaire, detailed, practical explanation

Material

Robot

The robot plays an important part in our experiment.

Consent form

Results

Discussion

Conclusion