Title: 

Trust, Transparency, and Technology: Psychological Perspectives on  Human–Robot Interaction, Virtual Reality, and Generative AI

Time 

Wednesday, 15 April · 2:30 – 4:30pm

Location and Streaming:
U7-18 con Podio [CIVITAS ex U7] 

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/dfj-qioh-gti

Abstract:

How do people build trust in intelligent systems – and what happens when those systems make mistakes, remain “black boxes,” or treat users unfairly? How can psychology and cognitive science help us design technology that is transparent, inclusive, and useful in everyday life?

André Helgert and Lukas Erle – doctoral researchers at the Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences (HRW) in the research group of Prof. Dr. Sabrina Eimler – share applied insights from their work in human-computer interaction. The session connects psychological concepts such as perception, attribution, trust, and coping to contemporary technologies including social robots, Virtual Reality (VR), and generative AI (GenAI). We will discuss how people interpret transparency cues in human–robot interaction (for example, different ways a robot might explain its actions), how responsibility and blame are assigned when systems fail, and how users react to erroneous robotic behavior.  The talk also highlights VR as both a research method and a study environment, showing how immersive setups can enable controlled yet interactive experiments – such as Wizard-of-Oz designs in which certain system “intelligence” is simulated to test human responses. We will present multiple examples of how VR can be used to study social interaction in human–robot scenarios, as well as how VR experiences can support learning and awareness for sensitive topics. Finally, we bring the focus to GenAI in higher education by sharing interview insights from students and educators on how GenAI is currently used, which opportunities it offers for learning and teaching, and which concerns repeatedly arise (e.g., reliability of information, bias, and fair assessment). Complementing these findings, we introduce the IDEAL project, which develops a practical learning offer to help higher education teachers integrate GenAI into their teaching activities safely and responsibly.

Bio André:

André Helgert has been a research assistant at the Institute of Computer Science since April 2021 and is part of Prof. Dr. Sabrina Eimler’s team in the Human Factors & Gender Studies division. After completing his studies in Medical Computer Science (B.Sc., OTH) and Computer Science (M.Sc., Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences), he is currently pursuing his Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in collaboration with the University of Bamberg. His research focuses on the use of virtual and extended reality in human-robot interaction. A particular focus is on developing approaches that simplify the use of virtual reality as a research tool, thereby making it accessible to non-technical researchers as well. His research focuses on the use of XR to raise awareness of stereotypes and discrimination, issues of diversity, the promotion of women in STEM fields, and violence prevention. In addition, he works on AI-supported teaching and learning scenarios, digital assistants, and topics related to the circular economy and twin transition.

Bio Lukas:

Lukas Erle has been a research assistant at the Institute of Computer Science at Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences (HRW) since 2023 2021 and is part of Prof. Dr. Sabrina Eimler’s team in the Human Factors & Gender Studies division. After completing his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Human-Technology Interaction, he studied Applied Cognitive and Media Science (M.Sc.). He has experience in various national and international research projects and is actively involved in teaching at HRW. Lukas’ research focuses on human-robot interaction, AI in education and the circular economy. Additionally, he is interested in the impact of algorithmic bias and examining how research can be made more inclusive. As part of his PhD thesis – supervised by Prof. Dr Sabrina Eimler – he is currently investigating how errors made by social robots affect their interaction with humans.

Publications:

• Helgert, A., Erle, L., Dittmann, A., Eimler, S. C., & Straßmann, C. (2025). Lost in transparency? Exploring uni- and multimodal transparency declarations in human-robot interaction. In 2025 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) (pp. 1272–1279). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN63969.2025.11217627
• Helgert, A., Eimler, S. C., & Arntz, A. (2021). Learning about catcalling: An interactive virtual gallery concept raising awareness for street harassment. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) (pp. 287–294). IEEE.
• Helgert, A., Eimler, S., & Gross, T. (2025). A technical user study on an authoring tool for simplifying VR study setups in HRI research. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’25) (pp. 550–558). ACM/IEEE.
• Helgert, A., Straßmann, C., & Eimler, S. C. (2024). Unlocking potentials of virtual reality as a research tool in human-robot interaction: A Wizard-of-Oz approach. In Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 535–539). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610978.3640741
• Erle, L., Helgert, A., Dittmann, A., Eimler, S. C., & Straßmann, C. (2025). Perceive, react, act – Exploring bias experiences, blame attributions, and coping with algorithmic bias through diverse sampling. In 2025 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN63969.2025.11217700
• Erle, L., Hoss, T., Peltzer, I., & Eimler, S. C. (2025). Opportunities and challenges of generative AI in education through the eyes of students and educators: A qualitative interview approach. In A. I. Cristea, E. Walker, Y. Lu, O. C. Santos, & S. Isotani (Eds.), Artificial intelligence in education: AIED 2025 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 15882, pp. 316–323). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98465-5_40
• Erle, L., Timm, L., Eimler, S. C., Fulantelli, G., Handmann, U., Hernández-Leo, D., Koyuturk, C., Niemann, B., Ognibene, D., Papadimitriou, A., Sironi, G., Taibi, D., Theophilou, E., & Zarifis, G. K. (2025). AI EU-phoria? Exploring international sentiments on the use of AI in higher education. In M. Ruskov, D. Ognibene, D. Hernández-Leo, D. Taibi, Y. Dimitriadis, G. Fulantelli, U. Handmann, G. K. Zarifis, Y. Wu, & P. M. Ferri (Eds.), Short paper proceedings of the D-SAIL workshop on transformative curriculum design—Digitalisation, sustainability, and AI literacy for 21st century learning (co-located with 26th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education [AIED 2025]) (CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 4051, pp. 26–31). CEUR-WS. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-4051/paper3.pdf
• Erle, L., Helgert, A., Dittmann, A., Straßmann, C., & Eimler, S. C. (2025). Tolerance for technological hiccups: Personality predispositions and responses to erroneous robotic systems [Conference paper]. 14th Conference of the Media Psychology Division (DGPs). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17531059