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150 Socially Intelligent Agents2. Designing Sociable RobotsSomewhat like human infants, sociable robots shall be situated in a verycomplex social environment (that of adult humans) with limited perceptual,motor, and cognitive abilities. Human infants, however, are born with a set ofperceptual and behavioral biases. Soon after birth they are particularly attentiveto people and human-mediated events, and can react in a recognizable manner(called proto-social responses) that conveys social responsiveness. These innateabilities suggests how critically important it is for the infant to establisha social bond with his caregiver, both for survival purposes as well as to ensurenormal cognitive and social development [4]. For this reason, Kismet hasbeen given a roughly analogous set of perceptual and behavioral abilities (seeFigure 18.1, and refer to [3] for technical details).Together, the infant’s biological attraction to human-mediated events in conjunctionwith his proto-social responses launch him into social interactionswith his caregiver. There is an imbalance in the social and cultural sophisticationof the two partners. Each, however, has innate endowments for helping theinfant deal with a rich social environment. For instance, the infant uses protectiveresponses and expressive displays for avoiding harmful or unpleasantsituations and to encourage and engage in beneficial ones. Human adults seemto intuitively read these cues to keep the infant comfortable, and to adjust theirown behavior to suit his limited perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities.Being situated in this environment is critical for normal development becauseas the infant’s capabilities improve and become more diverse, there isstill an environment of sufficient complexity into which he can develop. Forthis reason, Kismet has been designed with mechanisms to help it cope witha complex social environment, to tune its responses to the human, and to givethe human social cues so that she is better able to tune herself to it. This allowsKismet to be situated in the world of humans without being overwhelmed orunder-stimulated.Both the infant’s responses and his parent’s own caregiving responses havebeen selected for because they encourage adults to treat the infant as an intentionalbeing—as if he is already fully socially aware and responsive withthoughts, wishes, intents, desires, and feelings that he is trying to communicateas would any other person. This “deception” is critical for the infant’sdevelopment because it bootstraps him into a cultural world [4]. Over time,the infant discovers what sorts of activity on his part will get responses fromher, and also allows for routine, predictable sequences to be established thatprovide a context of mutual expectations. This is possible due to the caregiver’sconsistent and predictable manner of responding to her infant becauseshe assumes that he is fully socially responsive and shares the same meaningsthat she applies to the interaction. Eventually, the infant exploits these con-