The More I Understand It, The Less I Like It: The Relationship Between Understandability And Godspeed Scores For Robotic Gestures

This work investigates the relationship between the perception that people develop about a robot and the understandability of the gestures the latter displays. The experiments have involved 30 human observers that have rated 45 robotic gestures in terms of the Godspeed dimensions. At the same time, the observers have assigned a score to 10 possible interpretations (the same interpretations for all gestures). The results show that there is a statistically significant correlation between the understandability of the gestures - measured through an information theoretic approach - and all Godspeed scores. However, the correlation is positive in some cases (Anthropomorphism, Animacy and Perceived Intelligence), but negative in others (Perceived Safety and Likeability). In other words, higher understandability is not necessarily associated with more positive perceptions.