Fraune Marlena R, Komatsu Takanori, Preusse Harrison R, Langlois Danielle K, Au Rachel H Y, Ling Katrina, Suda Shogo, Nakamura Kiko, Tsui Katherine M
Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
Department of Frontier Media Science, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 19;13:904019. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.904019. eCollection 2022.
Social technology can improve the quality of older adults' social lives and mitigate negative mental and physical health outcomes associated with loneliness, but it should be designed collaboratively with this population. In this paper, we used participatory design (PD) methods to investigate how robots might be used as social facilitators for middle-aged and older adults (age 50+) in both the US and Japan. We conducted PD workshops in the US and Japan because both countries are concerned about the social isolation of these older adults due to their rapidly aging populations. We developed a novel approach to participatory design of future technologies that spends 2/3 of the PD session asking participants about their own life experiences as a foundation. This grounds the conversation in reality, creates rapport among the participants, and engages them in creative critical thinking. Then, we build upon this foundation, pose an abstract topic, and ask participants to brainstorm on the topic based on their previous discussion. In both countries, participants were eager to actively discuss design ideas for socially facilitative robots and imagine how they might improve their social lives. US participants suggested design ideas for telepresence robots, social distancing robots, and social skills artificial intelligence programs, while Japanese participants suggested ideas for pet robots, robots for sharing experiences, and easy-to-operate instructor robots. Comparing these two countries, we found that US participants saw robots as tools to help facilitate their social connections, while Japanese participants envisioned robots to function as surrogate companions for their parents and distract them from loneliness when they were unavailable. With this paper, we contribute to the literature in two main ways, presenting: (1) A novel approach to participatory design of future technologies that grounds participants in their everyday experience, and (2) Results of the study indicating how middle-aged and older adults from the US and Japan wanted technologies to improve their social lives. Although we conducted the workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic, many findings generalized to other situations related to social isolation, such as older adults living alone.
社交技术可以改善老年人的社交生活质量，并减轻与孤独相关的负面身心健康后果，但它应该与这一群体合作设计。在本文中，我们使用参与式设计（PD）方法来研究机器人如何在美国和日本用作中年及老年人（50岁以上）的社交促进工具。我们在美国和日本举办了PD研讨会，因为这两个国家都担心这些老年人由于人口迅速老龄化而面临社会孤立问题。我们开发了一种未来技术参与式设计的新方法，在PD会议的三分之二时间里让参与者讲述自己的生活经历作为基础。这使对话基于现实，在参与者之间建立融洽关系，并促使他们进行创造性的批判性思考。然后，我们在此基础上提出一个抽象主题，并要求参与者根据之前的讨论就该主题进行头脑风暴。在这两个国家，参与者都渴望积极讨论社交促进机器人的设计想法，并想象它们如何改善自己的社交生活。美国参与者提出了远程呈现机器人、社交距离机器人和社交技能人工智能程序的设计想法，而日本参与者则提出了宠物机器人、共享体验机器人和易于操作的指导机器人的想法。比较这两个国家，我们发现美国参与者将机器人视为帮助促进社交联系的工具，而日本参与者则设想机器人充当他们父母的替代伴侣，在他们无法陪伴时使父母摆脱孤独。通过本文，我们主要在两个方面为文献做出了贡献：（1）一种将参与者置于日常体验中的未来技术参与式设计新方法；（2）研究结果表明美国和日本的中年及老年人希望技术如何改善他们的社交生活。尽管我们是在新冠疫情期间举办的研讨会，但许多研究结果适用于与社会孤立相关的其他情况，比如独居的老年人。
