DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvsh
title: Data from: Social robots as conversational catalysts: Enhancing long-term human-human dyadic interaction at home

description: The integration of social robots into family environments raises critical
 questions about their long-term influence on family interactions. This
 study explores the potential of social robots as conversational catalysts
 in human-human dyadic interaction, focusing on enhancing high-quality,
 reciprocal conversations between parents and children during dialogic
 co-reading activities. With the increasing prevalence of social robots in
 homes and the recognized importance of parent-child exchanges for
 children's developmental milestones, this work presents a
 comprehensive empirical investigation involving over 70 parent-child
 dyads. We examined the effects of three robot interaction styles: a
 passive robot listener, an active robot with a fixed behavior strategy,
 and an active robot with a strategy-switching mechanism on parent-child
 conversational dynamics. Our findings reveal that a robot's active
 participation enhances the quality of parent-child dialogic conversations.
 Notably, the impact of robot facilitation varied based on parental English
 proficiency. Strategy-switching robots provided greater benefits to
 non-native English-speaking families, while dyads with native
 English-speaking parents benefited more from fixed-strategy robots.
 Overall, this study highlights the promise of social robots that empower
 parents in fostering their children's dialogic development—a contrast
 to the prevalent design of educational robots that primarily target
 children. It provides critical insights for the equitable, nuanced design
 of long-term family-robot interactions at home, especially in supporting
 diverse family backgrounds.
description: # Data from: Social robots as conversational catalysts: Enhancing
 long-term human-human dyadic interaction at home
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvsh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvsh) This dataset contains data on the conversational dynamics between a parent and child in the robot deployment study. It also contains the demographic profile information of the participants.  ## Description of the data and file structure  The conversational dynamics consists of six conversational quality indicators. The six columns in the dataset named \_data-file_-dataset-of-parent-child-conversational-dynamics_(1)_(1).csv: * Conv-Time-Dyad: [f]total_time_chat/time_interval.  * the time dyad spent on conversing (in secs) * Conv-Turns-Dyad: [f]chat_turn_num/time_interval * the number of turns that took place between the parent and child * Conv-Time-Parent: [f]total_time_chat_parent/time_interval * the time parent spent on conversing (in secs) * Conv-Ratio-Parent: [f]chat/chat+read-P-(words) * the ratio of the time parent spent on conversing versus conversing + reading * Conv-Time-Child: [f]total_time_chat_child/time_interval * the time parent spent on conversing  (in secs) * Conv-Ratio-Child: [f]chat/chat+read-C-(words) * the ratio of the time parent spent on conversing versus conversing + reading  * Read-Time-Parent: [f]total_time_read_parent/time_interval * the time parent spent on reading * Read-Time-Child: [f]total_time_read_child/time_interval * the time child spent on reading * Read-Time-Dyad: [f]total_time_read/time_interval * the time dyad spent on reading  * Note: empty cell(s) indicate the absence of child's or parent's utterances (either conversing or reading), resulting in NaN values for the conversational feature (e.g., Conv-Ratio-Child) In total 71 participants completed the study * Participant ID: pID Participants engaged in one pre-study and post-study assessment sessions and six curriculum sessions. * Session Number: sID The study consists of three conditions * Control: control * Fixed-Strategy: Fixed * Strategy-Switching: Adapt A set of demographic and survey-based features are listed in the data file dyadic_profile_survey.csv * Child's Gender: SES_child_gender * Parent's English Proficiency: SES_eng_prof-AssignGROUP * Parent's Familiarity with Dialogic Reading during Pre-study: READING_dialogic_reading_concept * 5-point scale with 1 meaning least familiar and 5 meaning most familiar * Parent's Acceptance of Robot during Pre-study: ROBO_robot_acceptance * 5-point scale with 1 meaning not accepting at all and 5 meaning fully accepting * Parent's Acceptance of Educational Technology during Pre-study: ROBO_edtech_acceptance * 5-point scale with 1 meaning not accepting at all and 5 meaning fully accepting * Number of Curriculum Videos Watched during Post-study: VIDEO_videos_watched * Parent's Perceived Usefulness of Videos during Post-study: VIDEO_video_usefulness * Parent's Perceived Easiness of Applying Dialogic Strategies during Post-Study: VIDEO_applying_strategy * 5-point scale with 1 meaning very difficult and 5 meaning very easy * Parent's Perceived Easiness of Understanding Dialogic Strategies in the Videos: VIDEO_strategy_easiness * 5-point scale with 1 meaning very difficult and 5 meaning very easy