Twelve subjects and their respective accompanying adults were asked to play with the Affective Tigger. Initially, (see Appendix A) the child was introduced to a `priming' play set to help them overcome their initial shyness of the Media Lab and the experimenter. The parent was distracted with release forms and a preliminary questionnaire (see Appendix B) while the experimenter attempted to engage the child with the `distracter' toy (a construction set made by Rokenbok). The subject's accompanying adult were fully informed at the outset of the experiment as to the nature of the trials about to occur, and what would be expected of them and their child.
After approximately five minutes, both child and parent followed the experimenter into a separate room to play with the Affective Tigger. The parent was presented with the Affective Tigger so that they might help overcome any residual shyness the child might have. This also provided the parent with an opportunity to examine the toy themselves for safety before giving it to the child. The child and parent were encouraged to experiment with the Affective Tigger to determine how he worked. As the child figured out what behaviors elicited responses from the Affective Tigger, the experimenter attempted to engage the child in a story (for a copy of the story and the interview questions, see Appendix C). At the conclusion of the experiment a few follow up questions were asked of both the adult and child. One week later, a follow up phone call was made to the accompanying adult. These follow up phone calls produced no significant change in attitude, or opinion on behalf of the child or adult.
