UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

			     presents


                     "Challenging Sociality? 
                  A Study of Robots and Autism"



                     Dr. Kathleen Richardson 
          (Anthropology Department, University College London)


                    25 November 2009 (Wednesday)
                       Lecture Theatre E351 
		   Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			      3 - 4 pm


		   Everyone is Welcome to Attend

                   Refreshments will be available



Abstract:

Our capacities for social interaction are not only central to communicate with 
people around us, but the capacity to be social with other person appears to 
impact on a wide range of conceptual capacities. Studies of persons with autism
spectrum disorders, ASD (which is a heterogeneous category involving many 
persons with social interaction difficulties) show that the capacities to be 
social contributes more generally to overall cognitive development, for example
in autistic persons the capacity for imagination, role-play, theory of mind 
(the ability to imagine thoughts, feeling and agency in other persons, animals 
and things) and metaphorical understanding is restricted, as is the ability to
anthropomorphise objects, events and situations. This shows how bound up 
sociality is to a complex range of human abilities. Autism as a condition can 
teach anthropology much about what it means to be social or not. But so too 
can robots. Research conducted by roboticists amongst persons with ASD at 
University of Hertfordshire suggest that the presence of a humanoid robots 
seems to improve the social skills of persons with autism. I am interested 
then, why a machine that takes on the appearance of a human seems to be more 
effective (than real humans) in encouraging social skills. My research will 
explore this interface between humanoid robotics and autism research to develop 
and anthropological theory of sociality.


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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq