Analyzing Emotions and Engagement During Cognitive Stimulation Group Training with the Pepper Robot

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is an evidence-based intervention that involves group or individual sessions demonstrating cognitive benefits in Mild Cognitive Impairment. Recent research suggests that social robots can effectively assist therapists during cognitive stimulation sessions for people with MCI. Building on these findings, we conducted an experimental study to evaluate the impact of a Socially Assistive Robot, on engagement and emotional responses during cognitive interventions for a group of elderly people. Each session was video-recorded for subsequent analysis. The findings suggest that the use of a Social Robot as a mediating tool in CST interventions is associated with high levels of participant engagement and predominantly positive-valenced emotional responses, as detected by both human and automatic evaluations.