## 5 Discussion and Conclusions  
In this study, an experiment investigating the interaction between hearing and deaf children and a humanoid robot have been conducted. Further, in an experimental situation, the children witnessed the humanoid robot [PERSON] responding with congruent or incongruent emotions to video clips, without using any sounds; that is, all emotions were expressed through non-verbal communications (i.e., with gestures and head movements). The children's ability to recognize the emotions expressed by [PERSON] were investigated. Overall, the children in this study reported medium to high credibility toward the robot. In line with findings from [PERSON] et al. [17], seeing [PERSON] respond with congruent emotions to the video predicted higher perceived credibility of the robot. Further, the children who observed [PERSON]'s congruent emotions found the reactions to have been more appropriate and easier to recognize compared to the group that saw [PERSON]'s incongruent emotions. The findings indicate that it is important for children that the robot responds with emotions that suit a given situation for them to experience higher credibility toward it. There was a varying ability to recognize emotions in NAO among the children in both groups. The emotions happiness and sadness were the most frequently correctly guessed emotions, which is in line with previous findings on emotion recognition in humans [40]. Even though several of the children reported that it was easy to recognize the emotions [PERSON] exhibited, many also struggled to identify the right emotion expressed by [PERSON]. Although the programming of emotions in NAO was inspired by previous studies [34; 35], it is possible that the exhibited emotions were too indistinct for the children to recognize them correctly. The ability to guess correct emotions displayed in the video clips predicted the ability to recognize the emotions [PERSON] displayed, regardless of the congruence level of the emotion. Previous findings suggest that when NAO exhibits congruent emotions to video clips, the recognition of emotions in the robot are simplified [17]. Contrary to these previous findings, the children in this study who observed NAO respond with congruent emotions were not more likely to recognize the correct emotion, compared to the group that observed NAO respond with incongruent emotions. Several factors can explain these contradictory results. First, factors such as general self-concept and age have been found to influence emotion recognition in humans [40]. This study's young sample may therefore be an explanation for why the previous results were not replicated in this experiment. Further, it is also important to mention that the small sample size may have been an influencing factor as to why previous findings were not replicated in this study. There was no difference between hearing and deaf children's ability to recognize emotions in NAO. Even though no difference was found in this study, previous findings have suggested that deaf children have a poorer ability to recognize emotions in others compared to hearing children [17; 40]. [PERSON] et al. [41] showed that children with cochlear implants recognized fewer emotions than children with normal hearing and that emotion recognition skills are affected by hearing loss, including when using non-verbal communication to express emotions. Finally, even though empathy has been shown to influence experiences in human-robot interactions [27], the results of this study showed, surprisingly, that empathy did not lead to a better ability to recognize emotions in the robot. No difference in empathy was found between the conditions or groups, in contrast to previous findings suggesting that deaf children have lower levels of empathy than hearing children [20; 21; 22]. This study aims to contribute to the future research on the field of human-robot interactions between deaf children and robots. As well as to contribute to a broader understanding of how children recognize emotions exhibited from humanoid robots.