Kaspar explains: the impact of explanation on human-robot trust using an educational platform

Children with autism often struggle with the concept of causality particularly in the context of social interactions with others. Kaspar is a state-of-the-art humanoid robot that is primed for interaction with children with autism. The interaction often includes a teacher or wizard of Oz approach to progress educational goals. We hypothesise that giving Kaspar the ability to explain its interaction goals may provide a more trustworthy educational tool, for children, their parents, and their teachers. We evaluate this using two scenarios, one with causal explanations added, and one without, then explore trust and educational outcomes.