Development and Evaluation of the Dialogue Protocol Aimed at Improving Critical Thinking Through Online Dialogue with a Robot.

Abstract

Dialogue with an artificial agent, such as a robot, can help users reflect on and revise their own thinking. In this research, we developed a novel protocol for dialoguing with a robot to improve users' critical thinking (CT) skills and investigated its effectiveness. This "CT dialogue protocol" allows participants to consider their own opinions from alternative perspectives and to use CT skills. Study 1 examined the efficacy of this protocol by comparing two groups: one engaged in the CT dialogue protocol and the other engaged in dialogues based on simple questions. The results showed that only the group using the CT dialogue protocol showed a significant improvement in CT skills. Study 2 examined whether the effects of the CT dialogue protocol varied with the dialogue setting by comparing two groups: one engaged in online dialogue using a web conferencing system and the other engaged in face-to-face dialogue. The results showed that the online dialogue group showed an improvement in CT skills. Overall, these results suggest that the CT dialogue protocol, especially when implemented in an online environment with a robot as the dialogue partner, is effective in improving users' CT skills.