What is a human? – toward psychological benchmarks in the field of human-robot interaction

This paper argues that psychological questions are as important as ontological questions related to human-like robot development. Nine psychological benchmarks to measure success of human-likeness of a robot is introduced: autonomy, imitation, intrinsic moral value, moral accountability, privacy, reciprocity, conventionality, creativity, and authenticity of relation. Argues that there are strong and weak ontological and psychological claims, combination of which result in four different future cases of how humans will perceive/accept robots and what robots will have become.
Here, the authors define ‘psychological benchmark’ as “categories of interaction that capture conceptually fundamental aspects of human life, specified abstractly enough to resist their identity as a mere psychological instrument, but capable of being translated into testable empirical
propositions”. Later, they argue that “in investigating who we are as a species, and who we can become, we need not privilege the biological “platform”.” Also included is an ambitious claim that “we seek to put into play the entirety of human psychology, extending not only into the realms of sociality but also morality.”

Interaction Studies Journal – and 3 relevant Special Issues

Another newly discovered journal!

There are three special issues from this journal that might be of interest to you: 1.Psychological Benchmarks of Human-Robot Interaction(2007), 2. Human and Robot Interactive Communication(2008), 3. Robots in the Wile: Exploring human-robot interaction in naturalistic environments(2009)

Some interesting titles from the journal: “What is a Human? Toward psychological benchmarks in the field of human–robot interaction”, “Nonverbal intimacy as a benchmark for human–robot interaction”, and “The influence of robot personality on perceived and preferred level of user control”