Yuan Fengpei, Boltz Marie, Bilal Dania, Jao Ying-Ling, Crane Monica, Duzan Joshua, Bahour Abdurhman, Zhao Xiaopeng
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
College of Nursing, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
IEEE Trans Robot. 2023 Aug;39(4):3332-3346. doi: 10.1109/tro.2023.3272846. Epub 2023 May 26.
Reminiscence therapy (RT) can improve the mood and communication of persons living with Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease related dementias (PLWD). Traditional RT requires professionals' facilitation, limiting its accessibility to PLWD. Social robotics has the potential to facilitate RT, enabling accessible, home-based RT. However, studies are needed to investigate how PLWD would perceive a robot-mediated RT (RMRT) and how to develop RMRT for positive user experience and successful adoption. In this paper, we developed a prototype of RMRT using a humanoid social robot and tested it with 12 participants (7 PLWD, 2 with mild cognitive impairment, and 3 informal caregivers). The robot automatically displayed a memory trigger on its tablet and engaged participants in a relatable conversation during RMRT. A mixed-method approach was employed to assess its acceptability and usability. Our results showed that PLWD had an overall positive user experience with the RMRT. Participants laughed and sang along with the robot during RMRT and demonstrated intention to use it. We additionally discussed robot control method and several critical problems for RMRT. The RMRT can facilitate both verbal and nonverbal social interaction for PLWD and holds promise for engaging, personalized, and efficient home-based cognitive exercises for PLWD.
回忆疗法（RT）可以改善阿尔茨海默病及与阿尔茨海默病相关的痴呆症患者（PLWD）的情绪和沟通能力。传统的回忆疗法需要专业人员的引导，这限制了PLWD对其的可及性。社交机器人有潜力促进回忆疗法，实现可及的居家回忆疗法。然而，需要开展研究来调查PLWD对机器人介导的回忆疗法（RMRT）的看法，以及如何开发RMRT以获得积极的用户体验并实现成功应用。在本文中，我们使用人形社交机器人开发了一个RMRT原型，并对12名参与者（7名PLWD、2名轻度认知障碍者和3名非正式护理人员）进行了测试。在RMRT过程中，机器人在其平板电脑上自动显示记忆触发点，并与参与者进行相关的对话。我们采用了混合方法来评估其可接受性和可用性。我们的结果表明，PLWD对RMRT总体上有积极的用户体验。在RMRT过程中，参与者与机器人一起欢笑和唱歌，并表现出使用它的意愿。我们还讨论了机器人控制方法以及RMRT的几个关键问题。RMRT可以促进PLWD的言语和非言语社交互动，并有望为PLWD提供引人入胜、个性化且高效的居家认知训练。
