Modelling engagement in dementia through behaviour. Contribution for socially interactive robotics

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Measuring engagement in people with dementia is challenging.
• Existing methods may not capture the nuances of interaction with technology or games.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel tool for measuring engagement in people with dementia.
• To create comprehensive ethograms detailing engagement behaviors during cognitive games and social robot interactions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an ethogram technique from ethology for behavior analysis.
• Conducted two studies: an exploratory study on cognitive board games and a longitudinal study with a social robot (Pleo).
• Employed thematic analysis to structure the observed behaviors.

Main Results:

• Developed two preliminary ethograms detailing engagement behaviors.
• Identified an underlying, common structure of engagement across different activities.
• Demonstrated that specific behavioral displays of engagement are activity-dependent but adhere to the common structure.

Conclusions:

• A structured approach using ethograms can effectively measure engagement in people with dementia.
• Engagement in dementia exhibits a consistent underlying structure, adaptable to various interactive contexts like games and social robots.