Tackling the Scaffolding Paradox: A Person-Centered Adaptive Robotic Interview Coach

2026-01-22

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge that university students often experience impaired interview performance due to social anxiety, while existing social robots struggle to simultaneously provide effective guidance and emotional support. Integrating person-centered therapy with instructional scaffolding theory, the authors propose a novel “scaffolding paradox” framework through a three-phase iterative design, introducing a dynamic feedback mechanism centered on user autonomy to construct an adaptive scaffolding ecosystem. Experimental results demonstrate that this approach significantly reduces interview-related anxiety while preserving high levels of perceived warmth and therapeutic alliance. Qualitative analyses further confirm that granting users control effectively buffers anxiety and fosters collaborative interaction.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Assisted, interactive, and conversational search

Abstract

Job interview anxiety is a prevalent challenge among university students and can undermine both performance and confidence in high-stakes evaluative situations. Social robots have shown promise in reducing anxiety through emotional support, yet how such systems should balance psychological safety with effective instructional guidance remains an open question. In this work, we present a three-phase iterative design study of a robotic interview coach grounded in Person-Centered Therapy (PCT) and instructional scaffolding theory. Across three weekly sessions (N=8), we systematically explored how different interaction strategies shape users'emotional experience, cognitive load, and perceived utility. Phase I demonstrated that a PCT-based robot substantially increased perceived psychological safety but introduced a Safety-Guidance Gap, in which users felt supported yet insufficiently coached. Phase II revealed a Scaffolding Paradox: immediate feedback improved clarity but disrupted conversational flow and increased cognitive load, whereas delayed feedback preserved realism but lacked actionable specificity. To resolve this tension, Phase III introduced an Agency-Driven Interaction Mode that allowed users to opt in to feedback dynamically. Qualitative findings indicated that user control acted as an anxiety buffer, restoring trust, reducing overload, and reframing the interaction as collaborative rather than evaluative. Quantitative measures further showed significant reductions in interview-related social and communication anxiety, while maintaining high perceived warmth and therapeutic alliance. We synthesize these findings into an Adaptive Scaffolding Ecosystem framework, highlighting user agency as a key mechanism for balancing emotional support and instructional guidance in social robot coaching systems.

Problem

• interview anxiety
• psychological safety
• instructional scaffolding
• social robots
• user agency

Innovation

• Agency-Driven Interaction
• Scaffolding Paradox
• Person-Centered Therapy
• Adaptive Scaffolding Ecosystem
• Social Robot Coaching