{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T13:20:52Z","timestamp":1783344052416,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780012800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780012800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004206","name":"The University of Osaka","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004206","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Int J of Soc Robotics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Loneliness in later life is a public\u2011health concern, and large language model (LLM)-enabled conversational robots have potential to supplement social connection at scale by facilitating everyday conversations. However, evidence on the development and acceptability of such systems for older people remains scarce. We conducted a two\u2011round mixed methods study with older community\u2011dwelling participants, to test whether pipeline refinements\u2014streaming automatic speech recognition, text\u2011to\u2011speech, and simplified turn\u2011taking cues\u2014improved conversational experience. A tabletop conversational robot (Sota, Vstone), powered by Generative Pre\u2011trained Transformer (GPT)\u20114o was used. Eighteen individuals participated in round one; paired analyses were conducted on the 17 eligible participants remaining in round two. We collected interaction logs (response latency, LLM\u2011level latency, and deletion rate [proportion of words in the manual transcript omitted in the ASR output]), technical failure events, and participant questionnaires (Godspeed Questionnaire Series; System Usability Scale; a customised five-item scale assessing conversational experience). Qualitative data were analysed using a framework approach. Median response latency decreased from 9.8 to 4.7s, deletion rate from 0.37 to 0.07, accompanied by improved perceived usability and conversational naturalness, while questionnaire indices of companionship changed little. Qualitative accounts converged: interactions felt smoother and more in\u2011context, yet interruptions, perceived superficiality of conversation, and only a modest sense of companionship were still experienced. Findings indicate that improving basic conversational fluency enhances naturalness and usability but is insufficient for delivering truly relational experience outcomes. Progress toward better companionship requires an additional relational layer\u2014shared memories, age\u2011attuned personas, and calibrated reciprocity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T14:29:07Z","timestamp":1780064947000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Focus Group-Led Refinement of an LLM-Enabled Companion Robot for Older People"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9350-3162","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuto","family":"Satake","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4086-2479","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Minna","family":"Nygren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7771-5838","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Clare","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Akira","family":"Tsuboi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ippei","family":"Endo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kazuhiro","family":"Umemura","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-7420-8875","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kunihiko","family":"Katsuki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9213-8220","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daiki","family":"Ishimaru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0479-6950","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Penny","family":"Rapaport","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8921-0044","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nadia","family":"Bianchi-Berthouze","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manabu","family":"Ikeda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3071-2338","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert","family":"Howard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"48","DOI":"10.1016\/S2215-0366(20)30383-7","volume":"8","author":"SL Lee","year":"2021","unstructured":"Lee SL, Pearce E, Ajnakina O, Johnson S, Lewis G, Mann F et al (2021) The association between loneliness and depressive symptoms among adults aged 50 years and older: a 12-year population-based cohort study. Lancet Psychiatry 8(1):48\u201357. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/S2215-0366(20)30383-7","journal-title":"Lancet Psychiatry"},{"key":"1407_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"82","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jad.2018.12.043","volume":"246","author":"J Dom\u00e8nech-Abella","year":"2019","unstructured":"Dom\u00e8nech-Abella J, Mund\u00f3 J, Haro JM, Rubio-Valera M (2019) Anxiety, depression, loneliness and social network in the elderly: Longitudinal associations from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). J Affect Disord 246:82\u201388. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jad.2018.12.043","journal-title":"J Affect Disord"},{"issue":"2","key":"1407_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"227","DOI":"10.1177\/1745691614568352","volume":"10","author":"J Holt-Lunstad","year":"2015","unstructured":"Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Baker M, Harris T, Stephenson D (2015) Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality: A Meta-Analytic Review. Perspect Psychol Sci 10(2):227\u2013237. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1745691614568352","journal-title":"Perspect Psychol Sci"},{"key":"1407_CR4","unstructured":"World Health Organization. WHO Commission on Social Connection [Internet] (2024) [cited 2024 Nov 26]. Available from: https:\/\/www.who.int\/groups\/commission-on-social-connection"},{"issue":"3","key":"1407_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"312","DOI":"10.1002\/wps.21224","volume":"23","author":"J Holt-Lunstad","year":"2024","unstructured":"Holt-Lunstad J (2024) Social connection as a critical factor for mental and physical health: evidence, trends, challenges, and future implications. World Psychiatry 23(3):312\u2013332. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/wps.21224","journal-title":"World Psychiatry"},{"issue":"10","key":"1407_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e2236676","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2022.36676","volume":"5","author":"P Hoang","year":"2022","unstructured":"Hoang P, King JA, Moore S, Moore K, Reich K, Sidhu H et al (2022) Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open 5(10):e2236676. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2022.36676","journal-title":"JAMA Netw Open"},{"issue":"2","key":"1407_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e97","DOI":"10.1016\/S2666-7568(23)00238-6","volume":"5","author":"S Gilbody","year":"2024","unstructured":"Gilbody S, Littlewood E, McMillan D, Atha L, Bailey D, Baird K et al (2024) Behavioural activation to mitigate the psychological impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on older people in England and Wales (BASIL+): a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Lancet Healthy Longev 5(2):e97\u2013107. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/S2666-7568(23)00238-6","journal-title":"Lancet Healthy Longev"},{"key":"1407_CR8","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Digital interventions for reducing social isolation and loneliness in older adults. [cited 2024 Nov 28]. Available from: https:\/\/www.who.int\/initiatives\/decade-of-healthy-ageing\/evidence-gap-map\/sil-digital"},{"key":"1407_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e27","DOI":"10.1017\/S0033291725103073","volume":"56","author":"Y Satake","year":"2026","unstructured":"Satake Y, Costello H, Naran N, Ishimaru D, Ikeda M, Howard R (2026) Autonomous conversational agents for loneliness, social isolation, depression and anxiety in older people without cognitive impairment: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med 56:e27. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0033291725103073","journal-title":"Psychol Med"},{"issue":"5","key":"1407_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e70076","DOI":"10.1111\/psyg.70076","volume":"25","author":"Y Nagata","year":"2025","unstructured":"Nagata Y, Satake Y, Yamazaki R, Nishio S, Suzuki M, Kanemoto H et al (2025) A Conversational Robot for Cognitively Impaired Older People Who Live Alone: An Exploratory Feasibility Study. Psychogeriatrics 25(5):e70076. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/psyg.70076","journal-title":"Psychogeriatrics"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1007\/s10514-025-10190-y","volume":"49","author":"B Irfan","year":"2025","unstructured":"Irfan B, Kuoppam\u00e4ki S, Hosseini A, Skantze G (2025) Between reality and delusion: challenges of applying large language models to companion robots for open-domain dialogues with older adults. Auton Robots 49(1):9. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10514-025-10190-y","journal-title":"Auton Robots"},{"key":"1407_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2005.14165","author":"TB Brown","year":"2020","unstructured":"Brown TB, Mann B, Ryder N, Subbiah M, Kaplan J, Dhariwal P et al (2020) Language Models are Few-Shot Learners. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2005.14165","journal-title":"arXiv"},{"issue":"7","key":"1407_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"799","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jagp.2025.03.010","volume":"33","author":"Y Satake","year":"2025","unstructured":"Satake Y, Ishimaru D, Katsuki K, Rapaport P, Berthouze N, Howard R et al (2025) A Week With a Conversational Large Language Model Companion Robot. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 33(7):799\u2013800. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jagp.2025.03.010","journal-title":"Am J Geriatr Psychiatry"},{"issue":"4","key":"1407_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1369","DOI":"10.1002\/cl2.1369","volume":"19","author":"V Welch","year":"2023","unstructured":"Welch V, Ghogomu ET, Barbeau VI, Dowling S, Doyle R, Beveridge E et al (2023) Digital interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness in older adults: An evidence and gap map. Campbell Syst Rev 19(4):e1369. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/cl2.1369","journal-title":"Campbell Syst Rev"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1802","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-024-19153-x","volume":"24","author":"S Sha","year":"2024","unstructured":"Sha S, Loveys K, Qualter P, Shi H, Krpan D, Galizzi M (2024) Efficacy of relational agents for loneliness across age groups: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health 24(1):1802. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12889-024-19153-x","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"key":"1407_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e43862","DOI":"10.2196\/43862","volume":"25","author":"Y He","year":"2023","unstructured":"He Y, Yang L, Qian C, Li T, Su Z, Zhang Q et al (2023) Conversational Agent Interventions for Mental Health Problems: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Med Internet Res 25:e43862. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2196\/43862","journal-title":"J Med Internet Res"},{"issue":"9","key":"1407_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"105108","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jamda.2024.105108","volume":"25","author":"Q Zhang","year":"2024","unstructured":"Zhang Q, Wong AKC, Bayuo J (2024) The Role of Chatbots in Enhancing Health Care for Older Adults: A Scoping Review. J Am Med Dir Assoc 25(9):105108. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jamda.2024.105108","journal-title":"J Am Med Dir Assoc"},{"key":"1407_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e49462","DOI":"10.2196\/49462","volume":"8","author":"YH Chou","year":"2024","unstructured":"Chou YH, Lin C, Lee SH, Lee YF, Cheng LC (2024) User-Friendly Chatbot to Mitigate the Psychological Stress of Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development and Usability Study. JMIR Form Res 8:e49462. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2196\/49462","journal-title":"JMIR Form Res"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1207\/s15327752jpa6601_2","volume":"66","author":"DW Russell","year":"1996","unstructured":"Russell DW (1996) UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. J Pers Assess 66(1):20\u201340. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1207\/s15327752jpa6601_2","journal-title":"J Pers Assess"},{"issue":"2","key":"1407_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.3390\/geriatrics9020022","volume":"9","author":"VK Jones","year":"2024","unstructured":"Jones VK, Yan C, Shade MY, Boron JB, Yan Z, Heselton HJ et al (2024) Reducing Loneliness and Improving Social Support among Older Adults through Different Modalities of Personal Voice Assistants. Geriatr (Basel) 9(2):22. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/geriatrics9020022","journal-title":"Geriatr (Basel)"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph21010100","volume":"21","author":"C Yan","year":"2024","unstructured":"Yan C, Johnson K, Jones VK (2024) The Impact of Interaction Time and Verbal Engagement with Personal Voice Assistants on Alleviating Loneliness among Older Adults: An Exploratory Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health 21(1):100. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijerph21010100","journal-title":"Int J Environ Res Public Health"},{"issue":"11","key":"1407_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e31586","DOI":"10.2196\/31586","volume":"8","author":"K Loveys","year":"2021","unstructured":"Loveys K, Sagar M, Pickering I, Broadbent E (2021) A Digital human for delivering a remote loneliness and stress intervention to at-risk younger and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Randomized pilot trial. JMIR Ment Health 8(11):e31586. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2196\/31586","journal-title":"JMIR Ment Health"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1007\/s12193-014-0157-0","volume":"9","author":"L Ring","year":"2015","unstructured":"Ring L, Shi L, Totzke K, Bickmore T (2015) Social support agents for older adults: longitudinal affective computing in the home. J Multimodal User Interfaces 9(1):79\u201388. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12193-014-0157-0","journal-title":"J Multimodal User Interfaces"},{"issue":"6","key":"1407_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"104979","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jamda.2024.02.017","volume":"25","author":"HY Yen","year":"2024","unstructured":"Yen HY, Huang CW, Chiu HL, Jin G (2024) The Effect of Social Robots on Depression and Loneliness for Older Residents in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Am Med Dir Assoc 25(6):104979. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jamda.2024.02.017","journal-title":"J Am Med Dir Assoc"},{"key":"1407_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wada K, Shibata T, Saito T, Sakamoto K, Tanie K (2005) Psychological and social effects of one year robot assisted activity on elderly people at a health service facility for the aged. In: Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 2785\u201390","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2005.1570535"},{"key":"1407_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101633","DOI":"10.1016\/j.arr.2022.101633","volume":"78","author":"C Yu","year":"2022","unstructured":"Yu C, Sommerlad A, Sakure L, Livingston G (2022) Socially assistive robots for people with dementia: Systematic review and meta-analysis of feasibility, acceptability and the effect on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life. Ageing Res Rev 78:101633. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.arr.2022.101633","journal-title":"Ageing Res Rev"},{"issue":"9","key":"1407_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1295","DOI":"10.1177\/07334648241236081","volume":"43","author":"OE Lee","year":"2024","unstructured":"Lee OE, Nah KO, Kim EM, Choi NG, Park DH (2024) Exploring the Use of Socially Assistive Robots Among Socially Isolated Korean American Older Adults. J Appl Gerontol 43(9):1295\u20131304. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/07334648241236081","journal-title":"J Appl Gerontol"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"161","DOI":"10.1080\/07317115.2022.2156829","volume":"47","author":"OE Lee","year":"2024","unstructured":"Lee OE, Lee H, Park A, Choi NG (2024) My Precious Friend: Human-Robot Interactions in Home Care for Socially Isolated Older Adults. Clin Gerontol 47(1):161\u2013170. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/07317115.2022.2156829","journal-title":"Clin Gerontol"},{"issue":"3","key":"1407_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"367","DOI":"10.1177\/07334648221138283","volume":"42","author":"OEK Lee","year":"2023","unstructured":"Lee OEK, Nam I, Chon Y, Park A, Choi N (2023) Socially Assistive Humanoid Robots: Effects on Depression and Health-Related Quality of Life among Low-Income, Socially Isolated Older Adults in South Korea. J Appl Gerontol 42(3):367\u2013375. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/07334648221138283","journal-title":"J Appl Gerontol"},{"key":"1407_CR30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhcs.2015.01.001","volume":"77","author":"J Li","year":"2015","unstructured":"Li J (2015) The benefit of being physically present: A survey of experimental works comparing copresent robots, telepresent robots and virtual agents. Int J Hum-Comput Stud 77:23\u201337. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ijhcs.2015.01.001","journal-title":"Int J Hum-Comput Stud"},{"issue":"14","key":"1407_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1909","DOI":"10.1163\/016918609X12518783330289","volume":"23","author":"M Heerink","year":"2009","unstructured":"Heerink M, Kr\u00f6se B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2009) Influence of Social Presence on Acceptance of an Assistive Social Robot and Screen Agent by Elderly Users. Adv Robot 23(14):1909\u20131923. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1163\/016918609X12518783330289","journal-title":"Adv Robot"},{"key":"1407_CR32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"633045","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2021.633045","volume":"8","author":"T Nishio","year":"2021","unstructured":"Nishio T, Yoshikawa Y, Sakai K, Iio T, Chiba M, Asami T et al (2021) The Effects of Physically Embodied Multiple Conversation Robots on the Elderly. Front Robot AI 8:633045. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frobt.2021.633045","journal-title":"Front Robot AI"},{"issue":"9","key":"1407_CR33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e032468","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2019-032468","volume":"9","author":"HL Bradwell","year":"2019","unstructured":"Bradwell HL, Edwards KJ, Winnington R, Thill S, Jones RB (2019) Companion robots for older people: importance of user-centred design demonstrated through observations and focus groups comparing preferences of older people and roboticists in South West England. BMJ Open 9(9):e032468. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/bmjopen-2019-032468","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"key":"1407_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Pellegrini T, Trancoso I, H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen A, Calado A, Dias MS, Braga D et al (2012) Impact of age in ASR for the elderly: preliminary experiments in European Portuguese. In: Torre Toledano D, Ortega Gim\u00e9nez A, Teixeira A, Gonz\u00e1lez Rodr\u00edguez J, Hern\u00e1ndez G\u00f3mez L, San Segundo Hern\u00e1ndez R, editors. Advances in Speech and Language Technologies for Iberian Languages [Internet]. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 139\u201347. (Communications in Computer and Information Science). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-642-35292-8_15","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-35292-8_15"},{"key":"1407_CR35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Vipperla R, Renals S, Frankel J (2008) Longitudinal study of ASR performance on ageing voices. In: Interspeech 2008. ISCA, pp 2550\u20132553. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.21437\/Interspeech.2008-632","DOI":"10.21437\/Interspeech.2008-632"},{"issue":"4","key":"1407_CR36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1522","DOI":"10.3390\/app10041522","volume":"10","author":"T Iio","year":"2020","unstructured":"Iio T, Yoshikawa Y, Chiba M, Asami T, Isoda Y, Ishiguro H (2020) Twin-Robot Dialogue System with Robustness against Speech Recognition Failure in Human-Robot Dialogue with Elderly People. Appl Sci 10(4):1522. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/app10041522","journal-title":"Appl Sci"},{"issue":"7","key":"1407_CR37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1285","DOI":"10.1038\/s41562-024-01882-z","volume":"8","author":"JWA Strachan","year":"2024","unstructured":"Strachan JWA, Albergo D, Borghini G, Pansardi O, Scaliti E, Gupta S et al (2024) Testing theory of mind in large language models and humans. Nat Hum Behav 8(7):1285\u20131295. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41562-024-01882-z","journal-title":"Nat Hum Behav"},{"key":"1407_CR38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Welivita A, Pu P (2024) Is ChatGPT more empathetic than humans? arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2403.05572","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2403.05572"},{"issue":"8067","key":"1407_CR39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"442","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-025-08866-7","volume":"642","author":"T Tu","year":"2025","unstructured":"Tu T, Schaekermann M, Palepu A, Saab K, Freyberg J, Tanno R et al (2025) Towards conversational diagnostic artificial intelligence. Nature 642(8067):442\u2013450. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-025-08866-7","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.5334\/joc.268","volume":"6","author":"AS Meyer","year":"2023","unstructured":"Meyer AS (2023) Timing in Conversation. J Cogn 6(1):20. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5334\/joc.268","journal-title":"J Cogn"},{"key":"1407_CR41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"731","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2015.00731","volume":"6","author":"SC Levinson","year":"2015","unstructured":"Levinson SC, Torreira F (2015) Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language. Front Psychol 6:731. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2015.00731","journal-title":"Front Psychol"},{"key":"1407_CR42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"OpenAI, Hurst A, Lerer A, Goucher AP, Perelman A, Ramesh A et al (2024) GPT-4o system card. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2410.21276","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2410.21276"},{"key":"1407_CR43","unstructured":"Hinton G, Deng L, Yu D, Dahl G, Mohamed AR, Jaitly N et al (2012) Deep neural networks for acoustic modeling in speech recognition"},{"key":"1407_CR44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Amodei D, Anubhai R, Battenberg E, Case C, Casper J, Catanzaro B et al (2015) Deep speech 2: end-to-end speech recognition in English and Mandarin. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.1512.02595","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1512.02595"},{"key":"1407_CR45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Graves A (2012) Sequence transduction with recurrent neural networks. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.1211.3711","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1211.3711"},{"key":"1407_CR46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.1109\/ASRU46091.2019.9003906","volume-title":"2019 IEEE Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding Workshop (ASRU) [Internet]","author":"J Li","year":"2019","unstructured":"Li J, Zhao R, Hu H, Gong Y, Improving (2019) RNN Transducer Modeling for End-to-End Speech Recognition. 2019 IEEE Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding Workshop (ASRU) [Internet]. SG, Singapore: IEEE;, pp 114\u2013121. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ASRU46091.2019.9003906"},{"key":"1407_CR47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Baevski A, Zhou H, Mohamed A, Auli M (2020) wav2vec 2.0: a framework for self-supervised learning of speech representations. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2006.11477","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2006.11477"},{"key":"1407_CR48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Hsu WN, Bolte B, Tsai YHH, Lakhotia K, Salakhutdinov R, Mohamed A (2021) HuBERT: self-supervised speech representation learning by masked prediction of hidden units. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2106.07447","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2106.07447"},{"key":"1407_CR49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2212.04356","author":"A Radford","year":"2022","unstructured":"Radford A, Kim JW, Xu T, Brockman G, McLeavey C, Sutskever I (2022) Robust speech recognition via large-scale weak supervision. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2212.04356"},{"key":"1407_CR50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Shen J, Pang R, Weiss RJ, Schuster M, Jaitly N, Yang Z et al (2018) Natural TTS synthesis by conditioning WaveNet on Mel spectrogram predictions. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.1712.05884","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1712.05884"},{"key":"1407_CR51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ren Y, Ruan Y, Tan X, Qin T, Zhao S, Zhao Z et al (2019) FastSpeech: fast, robust and controllable text to speech. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.1905.09263","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1905.09263"},{"key":"1407_CR52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Kong J, Kim J, Bae J (2020) HiFi-GAN: generative adversarial networks for efficient and high fidelity speech synthesis. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2010.05646","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2010.05646"},{"key":"1407_CR53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Yamamoto R, Song E, Kim JM (2020) Parallel WaveGAN: a fast waveform generation model based on generative adversarial networks with multi-resolution spectrogram. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.1910.11480","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1910.11480"},{"key":"1407_CR54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Schreiter T, R\u00fcppel JV, Hazra R, Rudenko A, Magnusson M, Lilienthal AJ (2025) Evaluating efficiency and engagement in scripted and LLM-enhanced human-robot interactions. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2501.12128","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2501.12128"},{"key":"1407_CR55","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"R\u00fcppel JV, Rudenko A, Schreiter T, Magnusson M, Lilienthal AJ (2025) Gaze-supported large language model framework for Bi-directional human-robot interaction. arXiv. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2507.15729","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2507.15729"},{"key":"1407_CR56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Kim CY, Lee CP, Mutlu B (2024) Understanding large-language model (LLM)-powered human-robot interaction. In: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM\/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, pp. 371\u201380. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3610977.3634966","DOI":"10.1145\/3610977.3634966"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.1038\/s41746-024-01157-x","volume":"7","author":"J Haltaufderheide","year":"2024","unstructured":"Haltaufderheide J, Ranisch R (2024) The ethics of ChatGPT in medicine and healthcare: a systematic review on Large Language Models (LLMs). Npj Digit Med 7(1):183. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41746-024-01157-x","journal-title":"Npj Digit Med"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1007\/s44206-025-00161-2","volume":"4","author":"R Ranisch","year":"2025","unstructured":"Ranisch R, Haltaufderheide J (2025) Rapid Integration of LLMs in Healthcare Raises Ethical Concerns: An Investigation into Deceptive Patterns in Social Robots. Digit Soc 4(1):7. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s44206-025-00161-2","journal-title":"Digit Soc"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2288-13-117","volume":"13","author":"NK Gale","year":"2013","unstructured":"Gale NK, Heath G, Cameron E, Rashid S, Redwood S (2013) Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC Med Res Methodol 13(1):117. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/1471-2288-13-117","journal-title":"BMC Med Res Methodol"},{"key":"1407_CR60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Krueger RA, Casey MA (2015) Focus group interviewing. In: Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp 506\u2013534. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/9781119171386.ch20","DOI":"10.1002\/9781119171386.ch20"},{"key":"1407_CR61","first-page":"376","volume-title":"Thematic analysis: a practical guide","author":"V Braun","year":"2021","unstructured":"Braun V, Clarke V (2021) Thematic analysis: a practical guide. SAGE, London; Thousand Oaks (CA), p 376"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-008-0001-3","volume":"1","author":"C Bartneck","year":"2009","unstructured":"Bartneck C, Kuli\u0107 D, Croft E, Zoghbi S (2009) Measurement Instruments for the Anthropomorphism, Animacy, Likeability, Perceived Intelligence, and Perceived Safety of Robots. Int J Soc Robot 1(1):71\u201381. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12369-008-0001-3","journal-title":"Int J Soc Robot"},{"issue":"2","key":"1407_CR63","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-022-00925-7","volume":"15","author":"K Seaborn","year":"2023","unstructured":"Seaborn K, Sekiguchi T, Tokunaga S, Miyake NP, Otake-Matsuura M (2023) Voice Over Body? Older Adults\u2019 Reactions to Robot and Voice Assistant Facilitators of Group Conversation. Int J Soc Robot 15(2):143\u2013163. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12369-022-00925-7","journal-title":"Int J Soc Robot"},{"key":"1407_CR64","unstructured":"Brooke J (1996) SUS - a quick and dirty usability scale. In: Usability Evaluation in Industry. Taylor & Francis, pp 189\u2013194"},{"issue":"6","key":"1407_CR65","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"711","DOI":"10.1016\/j.intcom.2005.09.002","volume":"17","author":"TW Bickmore","year":"2005","unstructured":"Bickmore TW, Caruso L, Clough-Gorr K, Heeren T (2005) It\u2019s just like you talk to a friend\u2019 relational agents for older adults. Interact Comput 17(6):711\u2013735. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.intcom.2005.09.002","journal-title":"Interact Comput"},{"issue":"4","key":"1407_CR66","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"276","DOI":"10.1016\/j.intcom.2010.02.001","volume":"22","author":"TW Bickmore","year":"2010","unstructured":"Bickmore TW, Puskar K, Schlenk EA, Pfeifer LM, Sereika SM (2010) Maintaining reality: Relational agents for antipsychotic medication adherence. Interact Comput 22(4):276\u2013288. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.intcom.2010.02.001","journal-title":"Interact Comput"},{"key":"1407_CR67","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1700340","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2025.1700340","volume":"16","author":"Y Nagata","year":"2026","unstructured":"Nagata Y, Satake Y, Yamazaki R, Nishio S, Ishiguro H, Ikeda M (2026) Case report: A five-case series of 18-month home use of a conversational companion robot for psychological support in older people with mild cognitive impairment or late-onset psychosis. Front Psychiatry 16:1700340. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2025.1700340","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"issue":"1","key":"1407_CR68","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e301270","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjment-2024-301270","volume":"28","author":"HI Wang","year":"2025","unstructured":"Wang HI, Gilbody S, Littlewood E, Baird K, Ekers D, McMillan D et al (2025) Cost-utility of behavioural activation for mitigating psychological impacts of COVID-19 on socially isolated older adults with depression and multiple long-term conditions compared with usual care: results from a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. BMJ Ment Health 28(1):e301270. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/bmjment-2024-301270","journal-title":"BMJ Ment Health"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Social Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T13:00:43Z","timestamp":1783342843000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]]},"references-count":68,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]}},"alternative-id":["1407"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12369-026-01407-w","relation":{"references":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.48550\/arXiv.2212.04356","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"ISSN":["1875-4791","1875-4805"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1875-4791","type":"print"},{"value":"1875-4805","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]]},"assertion":[{"value":"20 October 2025","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"6 March 2026","order":2,"name":"revised","label":"Revised","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"15 May 2026","order":3,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"29 May 2026","order":4,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Ethical approval was obtained from the University College London Interaction Centre Local Research Ethics Committee (ID: 0416). All participants provided written informed consent prior to participation.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Compliance with Ethical Standards"}},{"value":"Authors AT, IE and KU are employees of NTT West, which provided Azure services and server infrastructure but had no role in the data analysis, the decision to submit the manuscript, or the writing of the manuscript. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing Interests"}}],"article-number":"67"}}