Open AccessExpressing uncertainty in Human-Robot interaction
Author(s) -
Christoph Bartneck,
Elena Moltchanova
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0235361
Subject(s) - complement (music) , context (archaeology) , computer science , expression (computer science) , association (psychology) , robot , order (exchange) , work (physics) , artificial intelligence , psychology , engineering , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , complementation , biology , programming language , economics , psychotherapist , gene , phenotype , mechanical engineering
Most people struggle to understand probability which is an issue for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) researchers who need to communicate risks and uncertainties to the participants in their studies, the media and policy makers. Previous work showed that even the use of numerical values to express probabilities does not guarantee an accurate understanding by laypeople. We therefore investigate if words can be used to communicate probability, such as “likely” and “almost certainly not”. We embedded these phrases in the context of the usage of autonomous vehicles. The results show that the association of phrases to percentages is not random and there is a preferred order of phrases. The association is, however, not as consistent as hoped for. Hence, it would be advisable to complement the use of words with numerical expression of uncertainty. This study provides an empirically verified list of probabilities phrases that HRI researchers can use to complement the numerical values.