{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T06:09:19Z","timestamp":1767852559620,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,26]],"date-time":"2021-03-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1616716800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Regione Toscana","award":["CUP 165.24052017.112000015"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUP 165.24052017.112000015"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Informatics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study aims to investigate the role of several aspects that may influence human\u2013robot interaction in assistive scenarios. Among all, we focused on semi-permanent qualities (i.e., personality and cognitive state) and temporal traits (i.e., emotion and engagement) of the user profile. To this end, we organized an experimental session with 11 elderly users who performed a cognitive assessment with the non-humanoid ASTRO robot. ASTRO robot administered the Mini Mental State Examination test in Wizard of Oz setup. Temporal and long-term qualities of each user profile were assessed by self-report questionnaires and by behavioral features extrapolated by the recorded videos. Results highlighted that the quality of the interaction did not depend on the cognitive state of the participants. On the contrary, the cognitive assessment with the robot significantly reduced the anxiety of the users, by enhancing the trust in the robotic entity. It suggests that the personality and the affect traits of the interacting user have a fundamental influence on the quality of the interaction, also in the socially assistive context.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/informatics8020023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,26]],"date-time":"2021-03-26T06:59:42Z","timestamp":1616741982000},"page":"23","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Feasibility Study on the Role of Personality, Emotion, and Engagement in Socially Assistive Robotics: A Cognitive Assessment Scenario"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3187-810X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandra","family":"Sorrentino","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56025 Pontedera, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Excellence in Robotics &amp; AI, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}]},{"given":"Gianmaria","family":"Mancioppi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56025 Pontedera, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Excellence in Robotics &amp; AI, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}]},{"given":"Luigi","family":"Coviello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56025 Pontedera, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Excellence in Robotics &amp; AI, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7432-5033","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filippo","family":"Cavallo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56025 Pontedera, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Excellence in Robotics &amp; AI, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5784-3752","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laura","family":"Fiorini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20180024","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2018.0024","article-title":"From social brains to social robots: Applying neurocognitive insights to human\u2013robot interaction","volume":"374","author":"Cross","year":"2019","journal-title":"Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1016\/j.patrec.2017.06.002","article-title":"User profiling and behavioral adaptation for HRI: A survey","volume":"99","author":"Rossi","year":"2017","journal-title":"Pattern Recognit. Lett."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"eaat7451","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aat7451","article-title":"Robots for the people, by the people: Personalizing human-machine interaction","volume":"3","author":"Clabaugh","year":"2018","journal-title":"Sci. Robot."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"eaao6760","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aao6760","article-title":"Personalized machine learning for robot perception of affect and engagement in autism therapy","volume":"3","author":"Rudovic","year":"2018","journal-title":"Sci. Robot."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nocentini, O., Fiorini, L., Acerbi, G., Sorrentino, A., Mancioppi, G., and Cavallo, F. (2019). A Survey of Behavioral Models for Social Robots. Robotics, 8.","DOI":"10.20944\/preprints201905.0251.v1"},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"107","article-title":"A review of personality in human-robot interactions","volume":"4","author":"Robert","year":"2020","journal-title":"Ann. Arbor."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Braun, M., and Alt, F. (2019, January 4\u20139). Affective assistants: A matter of states and traits. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems-Proceedings, Glasgow, UK.","DOI":"10.1145\/3290607.3313051"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-016-0357-8","article-title":"Towards Engagement Models that Consider Individual Factors in HRI: On the Relation of Extroversion and Negative Attitude Towards Robots to Gaze and Speech During a Human\u2013Robot Assembly Task: Experiments with the iCub humanoid","volume":"9","author":"Ivaldi","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"465","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-015-0298-7","article-title":"Evaluating the Engagement with Social Robots","volume":"7","author":"Anzalone","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"881","DOI":"10.1109\/TCDS.2018.2843122","article-title":"Robot Fast Adaptation to Changes in Human Engagement During Simulated Dynamic Social Interaction With Active Exploration in Parameterized Reinforcement Learning","volume":"10","author":"Khamassi","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Cogn. Dev. Syst."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"eaaz3791","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aaz3791","article-title":"Modeling engagement in long-term, in-home socially assistive robot interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders","volume":"5","author":"Jain","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Robot."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Hamada, T., Okubo, H., Inoue, K., Maruyama, J., Onari, H., Kagawa, Y., and Hashimoto, T. (2008, January 1\u20133). Robot therapy as for recreation for elderly people with dementia - Game recreation using a pet-type robot. Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN, Munich, Germany."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tapus, A., Tapus, C., and Mataric, M.J. (2009, January 23\u201326). The use of socially assistive robots in the design of intelligent cognitive therapies for people with dementia. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, Kyoto, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICORR.2009.5209501"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1153","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSRE.2016.2608791","article-title":"A Robotic Coach Architecture for Elder Care (ROCARE) Based on Multi-User Engagement Models","volume":"25","author":"Fan","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabilitation Eng."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rossi, S., Santangelo, G., Staffa, M., Varrasi, S., Conti, D., and Di Nuovo, A. (2018, January 27\u201331). Psychometric Evaluation Supported by a Social Robot: Personality Factors and Technology Acceptance. Proceedings of the 2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Tai\u2019an, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROMAN.2018.8525838"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"526","DOI":"10.1007\/s42235-019-0043-2","article-title":"Assessment of Cognitive skills via Human-robot Interaction and Cloud Computing","volume":"16","author":"Varrasi","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Bionic Eng."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"331","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2018.08.013","article-title":"Emotional processes in human-robot interaction during brief cognitive testing","volume":"90","author":"Desideri","year":"2019","journal-title":"Comput. Hum. Behav."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Palestra, G., and Pino, O. (2020). Detecting emotions during a memory training assisted by a social robot for individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Multimedia Tools Appl., 1\u201316.","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-020-10092-4"},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"112","article-title":"Automatic speech analysis for the assessment of patients with predementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease","volume":"1","author":"Satt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Alzheimer\u2019s Dementia: Diagn. Assess. Dis. Monit."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rossi, S., Conti, D., Garramone, F., Santangelo, G., Staffa, M., Varrasi, S., and Di Nuovo, A. (2020). The Role of Personality Factors and Empathy in the Acceptance and Performance of a Social Robot for Psychometric Evaluations. Robotics, 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics9020039"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Feil-Seifer, D., and Matari\u0107, M.J. (July, January 28). Defining socially assistive robotics. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, Chicago, IL, USA."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cpr.2014.07.001","article-title":"Integrating socially assistive robotics into mental healthcare interventions: Applications and recommendations for expanded use","volume":"35","author":"Rabbitt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Clin. Psychol. Rev."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"58","article-title":"Novel Technological Solutions for Assessment, Treatment, and Assistance in Mild Cognitive Impairment","volume":"13","author":"Mancioppi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Front. Aging Neurosci."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Luperto, M., Romeo, M., Lunardini, F., Basilico, N., Abbate, C., Jones, R., Cangelosi, A., Ferrante, S., and Borghese, N.A. (2019, January 4\u20138). Evaluating the Acceptability of Assistive Robots for Early Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Macau, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS40897.2019.8968234"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-019-00533-y","article-title":"The Humanoid Robot NAO as Trainer in a Memory Program for Elderly People with Mild Cognitive Impairment","volume":"12","author":"Pino","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102509","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhcs.2020.102509","article-title":"The impact of serious games with humanoid robots on mild cognitive impairment older adults","volume":"145","author":"Manca","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"3","article-title":"Adaptation in Affective Video Games: A Literature Review","volume":"16","author":"Bontchev","year":"2016","journal-title":"Cybern. Inf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"McCrae, R.R., and Costa, P.T. (2008). The Five Factor Theory of personality. Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, The Guilford Press."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"812","DOI":"10.1001\/archpsyc.1983.01790060110016","article-title":"The Mini-Mental State Examination","volume":"40","author":"Folstein","year":"1983","journal-title":"Arch. Gen. Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"695","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1532-5415.2005.53221.x","article-title":"The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: A Brief Screening Tool For Mild Cognitive Impairment","volume":"53","author":"Nasreddine","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Am. Geriatr. Soc."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1007\/s12008-019-00641-z","article-title":"Co-creation of an assistive robot for independent living: Lessons learned on robot design","volume":"14","author":"Fiorini","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Interact. Des. Manuf. (IJIDeM)"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"John, O.P., Donahue, E.M., and Kentle, R.L. (1991). Big Five Inventory. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol.","DOI":"10.1037\/t07550-000"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jrp.2006.02.001","article-title":"Measuring personality in one minute or less: A 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory in English and German","volume":"41","author":"Rammstedt","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Res. Pers."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1063","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.54.6.1063","article-title":"Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales","volume":"54","author":"Watson","year":"1988","journal-title":"J. Pers. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1027\/\/1015-5759.19.2.131","article-title":"Factorial and Construct Validity of the Italian Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)","volume":"19","author":"Terracciano","year":"2003","journal-title":"Eur. J. Psychol. Assess."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-008-0001-3","article-title":"Measurement Instruments for the Anthropomorphism, Animacy, Likeability, Perceived Intelligence, and Perceived Safety of Robots","volume":"1","author":"Bartneck","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e264","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.9460","article-title":"Robotic Services Acceptance in Smart Environments With Older Adults: User Satisfaction and Acceptability Study","volume":"20","author":"Cavallo","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_38","first-page":"739","article-title":"Engagement during Interaction with Assistive Robots","volume":"8","author":"Esposito","year":"2018","journal-title":"Neuropsychiatry"},{"key":"ref_39","first-page":"69","article-title":"A guide to appropriate use of Correlation coefficient in medical research","volume":"24","author":"Mukaka","year":"2012","journal-title":"Malawi Med. J."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fiorini, L., Mancioppi, G., Becchimanzi, C., Sorrentino, A., Pistolesi, M., Tosi, F., and Cavallo, F. (September, January 31). Multidimensional evaluation of telepresence robot: Results from a field trial*. Proceedings of the 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Naples Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/RO-MAN47096.2020.9223467"},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"251","article-title":"Personality factors and acceptability of socially assistive robotics in teachers with and without specialized training for children with disability","volume":"20","author":"Conti","year":"2017","journal-title":"Life Span Disabil."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bernotat, J., and Eyssel, F. (September, January 28). A robot at home\u2014How affect, technology commitment, and personality traits influence user experience in an intelligent robotics apartment. Proceedings of the RO-MAN 2017-26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROMAN.2017.8172370"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Takayama, L., and Pantofaru, C. (2009, January 10\u201315). Influences on proxemic behaviors in human-robot interaction. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2009, St. Louis, MO, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2009.5354145"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1701","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2015.01701","article-title":"Attitudinal change in elderly citizens toward social robots: The role of personality traits and beliefs about robot functionality","volume":"6","author":"Damholdt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"569","DOI":"10.3233\/JAD-160703","article-title":"The Utilization of Robotic Pets in Dementia Care","volume":"55","author":"Petersen","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Alzheimer\u2019s Dis."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/j.maturitas.2012.10.015","article-title":"Use of social commitment robots in the care of elderly people with dementia: A literature review","volume":"74","author":"Mordoch","year":"2013","journal-title":"Maturitas"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"972","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2007.906261","article-title":"Living With Seal Robots\u2014Its Sociopsychological and Physiological Influences on the Elderly at a Care House","volume":"23","author":"Wada","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2512","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2012.2200539","article-title":"Using Socially Assistive Human\u2013Robot Interaction to Motivate Physical Exercise for Older Adults","volume":"Volume 100","author":"Fasola","year":"2012","journal-title":"Proceedings of the IEEE"},{"key":"ref_49","unstructured":"O\u2019 Dwyer, J., Murray, N., and Flynn, R. (2018). Affective computing using speech and eye gaze: A review and bimodal system proposal for continuous affect prediction. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2313","DOI":"10.1007\/s10462-019-09770-z","article-title":"Recent trends in deep learning based personality detection","volume":"53","author":"Mehta","year":"2020","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Rev."},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"Aranha, R.V., Correa, C.G., and Nunes, F.L.S. (2019). Adapting software with Affective Computing: A systematic review. IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput., 1."}],"container-title":["Informatics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-9709\/8\/2\/23\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:41:25Z","timestamp":1760161285000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-9709\/8\/2\/23"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,26]]},"references-count":51,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6]]}},"alternative-id":["informatics8020023"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/informatics8020023","relation":{},"ISSN":["2227-9709"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2227-9709","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,26]]}}}