Animation, theory of mind and humanoid robots: creating a Social Robot Video Task

Theory of Mind (ToM)—a social cognitive ability commonly underdeveloped in individuals with autism—is necessary to attribute mental states to oneself and others. Research into robot-assisted interventions to improve ToM ability in children with autism has become increasingly popular. However, no appropriate task currently exists to measure the degree of efficacy of robot-assisted interventions targeting ToM ability. The authors demonstrate how animation techniques and principles can be leveraged to develop and produce videos of humanoid robots interacting, which could selectively measure ToM.