Do humans over-imitate robots?

Imitation plays a significant role in cultural knowledge transmission and in learning. The tendency to imitate causally irrelevant actions is termed over-imitation. Over-imitation is considered a social phenomenon unique to humans and has been investigated mainly in preschool-aged children. However, it is currently unknown whether children over-imitate if the model is not human. Here, we present a data set of the investigation if over-imitation occurs with a robot model. We tested whether 5-to-6-year-old children (boys = 1, girls = 0) over-imitate a humanoid robot in a similar manner as a human model (over-imitation: oi.score = 1, no over-imitation: oi.score = 0). Preschoolers were randomly assigned to watch either a human (condition = 1) or a robot (condition = 2) retrieve a reward out of a puzzle box, using functional and nonfunctional actions. Children saw three demonstrations in three phases and could extract a token themselves after each demonstration. In there first phase they observed an inefficient demonstration (including irrelevant actions), in the second phase the observed a efficient demonstration (only relevant action), and in the third phase they observed once more an inefficient demonstration. We compared the experimental condition also to a baseline condition in which children did not see any prior demonstration (condition = 0). In Version 2 of the dataset we collected a new and bigger sample for the baseline. Children tended to copy whichever strategy was shown to them — an inefficient or efficient one, regardless of who the model was. Thus, children were as likely to imitate the robot as the human. They even imitated the inefficient strategy after having successfully used the most efficient one. Results indicate that children perceive humanoid robots not only as informants but also as social behavioral models.

模仿在文化知识传播与学习中发挥着关键作用。个体对因果无关动作的模仿倾向，被称为过度模仿（over-imitation）。过度模仿被认为是人类独有的社会现象，既往研究多以学龄前儿童为对象展开。但目前尚不明确，当示范者并非人类时，儿童是否会表现出过度模仿行为。
本研究提供了一项针对机器人示范者场景下过度模仿行为的调查数据集。我们测试了5至6岁儿童（男孩=1，女孩=0）是否会以模仿人类示范者的相似模式，对类人机器人产生过度模仿行为（过度模仿：oi.score=1；非过度模仿：oi.score=0）。
学龄前儿童被随机分配至两个实验组别：分别观看人类示范者（条件=1）或类人机器人示范者（条件=2）通过功能性与非功能性动作从解谜盒中获取奖励的过程。儿童将在三个阶段各观看一次示范，并可在每次示范结束后自行提取一枚Token。其中，第一阶段为低效示范（包含无关动作），第二阶段为高效示范（仅包含相关动作），第三阶段则再次呈现低效示范。
我们还将实验组别与无任何前置示范的基线组（条件=0）进行了对照。在数据集的版本2中，我们为基线组收集了规模更大的全新样本。
研究结果显示，儿童倾向于复刻其所见的任何策略——无论该策略是低效还是高效，亦不受示范者身份的影响。换言之，儿童对机器人的模仿概率与对人类的模仿概率并无显著差异，甚至在成功使用最高效策略后，仍会模仿低效策略。
实验结果表明，儿童不仅会将类人机器人视为信息传递者，还会将其视作社会行为的示范主体。