Conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of machine companionship: a scoping review
这篇范围综述系统梳理了2017至2025年间71篇关于机器陪伴的学术文献，发现其概念和测量方式差异很大，最终给出了一个文献驱动的定义，为未来研究提供框架。
Abstract The notion of machine companions has long been embedded in socio-technological imaginaries. Recent advances in AI have moved those media musings into believable sociality manifested in interfaces, robotic bodies, and devices. Those machines are often referred to colloquially as “companions,” yet there is little careful engagement of machine companionship (MC) as a formal concept or measured variable. This PRISMA-guided scoping review systematically samples, surveys, and synthesizes current scholarly works on MC (N = 71; 2017–2025). Works varied widely in considerations of MC according to guiding theories, dimensions of a priori specified properties (subjectively positive, sustained over time, co-active, autotelic), and in measured concepts (with more than 50 distinct measured variables). We ultimately offer a literature-guided definition of MC as an autotelic, coordinated connection between human and machine that unfolds over time and is subjectively positive; through a facet-theoretical lens, we suggest how this definition can scaffold future research.