Sharif Digital Repository

This study aims at examining the effect of Robot Assisted language learning (RALL) on the anxiety level and attitude in the English language learning classroom. Forty-six female students who were beginners at the age of 12 participated in this study and were randomly assigned into two groups of RALL (30 students) and non-RALL (16 students). The treatment was given by a teacher accompanied by a humanoid robot assistant for the RALL group. Two questionnaires of anxiety [15] and attitude [19] were utilized to measure the students' anxiety and attitude. The results of descriptive and t-tests indicated that there was lower anxiety and positive attitude towards English learning in the RALL group... 

Treatment of cancer involves many invasive procedures that could be a source of distress in kids suffering from cancer. Distress itself can be an important obstacle in patients' acceptance of treatment and their adaptation to it, consequently reducing its efficiency. Distress symptoms, in a spectrum from mild to critical, are shown to be widespread in children struggling with cancer. In recent years to alleviate this psychological condition, researchers have proposed and examined several methods such as relaxation, hypnosis, desensitization, and distraction. This study presents a new approach to explore the impact of utilizing a humanoid robot as a therapy-assistant in dealing with patients'... 

Treating cancer encompasses many invasive procedures that can be a source of distress in oncology patients. Distress itself can be a major obstruction in the path of acceptance of treatment and the patient's adaptation to it, thereby reducing its efficiency. These distress symptoms have been found to be prevalent in children suffering from cancer, in a spectrum from mild to critical. In the past years in response to this psychological suffering, researchers have proposed and tested several methods such as relaxation, hypnosis, desensitization, and distraction. This paper propounds a new approach by exploring the effect of utilizing a humanoid robot as a therapy-assistive tool in dealing with... 

This study aimed to examine the effect of robot assisted language learning (RALL) on the anxiety level and attitude in English vocabulary acquisition amongst Iranian EFL junior high school students. Forty-six female students, who were beginners at the age of 12, participated in this study and were randomly assigned into two groups of RALL (30 students) and non-RALL (16 students). The textbook, the materials, as well as the teacher were the same in the two groups. However in the RALL group, the treatment was given by a teacher accompanied by a humanoid robot assistant. Two questionnaires of anxiety and attitude were utilized to measure the students’ anxiety and attitude (Horwitz et al. 1986;... 

In this paper we aimed to explore young Iranian EFL learners’ attitude towards Robot Assisted Language Learning (RALL) in an English language classroom. To this end, 19 preschool children ranging from 3 to 6 years old were randomly assigned to a RALL group which had a robot as an assistant to the teacher. Their attitude towards the robot was video recorded for one month, during ten sessions of their English classroom course. Their overall attitude was examined focusing on the three factors of anxiety, motivation and interaction based on human-robot interaction (HRI) theory. The result of this study showed that children’s motivation increased as a result of interacting with the robot and... 

Background Although anxiety is a common non-motor outcome of Parkinson's disease (PD) affecting 40% of patients, little attention has been paid so far to its effects on balance impairment and postural control. Improvement of postural control through focusing on the environment (i.e. external focus) has been reported, but the role of anxiety, as a confounding variable, remains unclear. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the influence of anxiety and attentional focus instruction on the standing postural control of PD patients. Methods Thirty-four patients with PD (17 with high anxiety (HA-PD) and 17 with low anxiety (LA-PD)), as well as 17 gender- and age-matched healthy control... 

Although anxiety is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders in stroke survivors, its effect on sensory reweighting has not yet been fully studied. The aim of this work was to investigate how anticipation of collision avoidance events affects sensory reweighting in chronic stroke survivors with low and high levels of anxiety (LA-stroke and HA-stroke, respectively), as compared with healthy controls (HC), under the condition of perturbed proprioception. Eighteen LA-stroke and 18 HA-stroke survivors, as well as 18 gender- and age-matched HC, participated in this study. Postural sway variability (i.e. Root Mean Square (RMS) of the COP velocity) was measured for a duration of 180 s... 

Anxiety is among the most debilitating nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to determine how PD patients with low and high levels of anxiety (LA-PD and HA-PD, respectively) compare with age- and sex-matched controls at the level of motor control of reach-to-grasp movements during single- and dual-task conditions with varying complexity. Reach-to-grasp movement kinematics were assessed in 20 LA-PD, 20 HA-PD, and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls under single- as well as easy and difficult dual-task conditions. Assessment of PD patients was performed during both the on- and off-drug phases. The results obtained during dual-task conditions reveal deficits in...