Which Way Should We Go?

For 4- to 8-year-olds

This study will take place on a Zoom video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate!” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. In this study, your child will play a short computer game similar to Pac-Man. In the game, your child will guide a dot on the screen to various destinations using the arrow keys. First, your child will complete a few practice rounds where they play a solo game. Once they are familiar with the game, your child will play with another player (another dot) in the game. This other player will either be controlled by another child online or by a bot that is managed by a computer program. In the two-player game, they will collaborate to finish the task. After the games, we will ask them a few short questions about their game experience (e.g., would you play with this teammate again?). Before the session, we will email you a demographic survey with questions, such as age, race/ethnicity, and household income.

As artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become a part of our daily lives, we are interested in how children think, plan, and work together when interacting with AI agents. Prior research shows that young children can collaborate well with peers through mechanisms such as joint commitment, but we know little about how children collaborate with AI agents, which can perform well in individual tasks but may lack the joint commitment mechanisms found in humans. Through interactive computer games, we study how children make social decisions with either peers or virtual AI agents. It helps us understand which aspects of cooperation transfer to AI partners and which may be unique to human-to-human teamwork.

15 minutes

We will send you a $5 Amazon.com gift card within a week and children will receive a certificate in recognition of their help in research and advancement of science. To be eligible for the gift card, (1) your child must fall within the study’s age range, (2) you must provide a valid consent statement, and (3) a child must be present with you during the experiment. Please note that each child may only participate once.