It should look like a robot: Mental models of anthropomorphic features

Mental models were proposed by Craik (1943) to explain human-computer interaction. They are of particular interest to educational researchers, because they explain what happens when teachers and students interact with each other and with phenomena in their environment. They have been said to form the basis of all human behaviour and, as such, are simultaneously a process where they provide a means to interact in problem-solving situations and a product where they act as a storage facility to retain the knowledge from those interactions. A longitudinal study of the mental models held by students and their teacher in an Australia Primary School affirmed the role mental model theory has to play in enabling researchers, and teachers, to understand how students engage with artefacts successfully in a problem-solving environment. The study uncovered the students’ mental models of the anthropomorphic features of the robots with which they were engaging. These findings offer design implications for the development of robotic technologies for use in classrooms of the future. They may also provide guidance for the wider animatronics community. Students were able to engage successfully in problem-solving activities in robotics but their mental models indicated a clear preference for humanistic features.