  The provision of robotic assistance during motor training has proven to be
effective in enhancing motor learning in some healthy trainee groups as well as
patients. Personalizing such robotic assistance can help further improve motor
(re)learning outcomes and cater better to the trainee's needs and desires.
However, the development of personalized haptic assistance is hindered by the
lack of understanding of the link between the trainee's personality and the
effects of haptic guidance during human-robot interaction. To address this gap,
we ran an experiment with 42 healthy participants who trained with a robotic
device to control a virtual pendulum to hit incoming targets either with or
without haptic guidance. We found that certain personal traits affected how
users adapt and interact with the guidance during training. In particular,
those participants with an 'Achiever gaming style' performed better and applied
lower interaction forces to the robotic device than the average participant as
the training progressed. Conversely, participants with the 'Free spirit game
style' increased the interaction force in the course of training. We also found
an interaction between some personal characteristics and haptic guidance.
Specifically, participants with a higher 'Transformation of challenge' trait
exhibited poorer performance during training while receiving haptic guidance
compared to an average participant receiving haptic guidance. Furthermore,
individuals with an external Locus of Control tended to increase their
interaction force with the device, deviating from the pattern observed in an
average participant under the same guidance. These findings suggest that
individual characteristics may play a crucial role in the effectiveness of
haptic guidance training strategies.
