Alignment or collaboration? How implicit views of communication influence robot design

In this paper, I illustrate the influence of two views of communication, the interactive alignment model and the collaboration model, on human-robot interaction design. I argue that these views may inspire different design approaches, with very different outcomes. After presenting the two models, I compare the two approaches in an empirical analysis, using the concept of shaping as an example. The results show that the assumption of automatic processes in communication may lead to a restricted view of shaping by interactive alignment, whereas a collaborative view of communication allows a much broader range of strategies to be taken, which can enrich the designer´s possibilities to shape users´ behavior significantly. The collaboration view is therefore more suited for interaction design.