Davide Ghiglino

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

In the quest for understanding the factors that contribute to the adoption of the Intentional Stance towards robots, the obvious candidate is the robot itself—its physical features and the way it behaves. This chapter explores how the characteristics of a robot may influence the propensity to adopt the Intentional Stance. It discusses factors such...

In everyday life, realizing that other people’s minds do not necessarily operate like our own minds deepens our understanding of how humans function. Thus, to fully understand human attitudes towards robots, one needs to take into account individual differences. For example, individual predispositions, such as the need for cognition, or the need fo...

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often involve challenges in social communication, and various therapies are used to address these. This randomized, two-period crossover trial assessed the effectiveness of integrating Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with robot-assisted therapy to improve Theory of Mind (ToM) skills in children with ASD. Thirty-two c...

This study explores using humanoid robots to improve the diagnosis and intervention of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through objective measures, gaze pattern analysis specifically. Traditional ASD diagnostic tools rely on subjective assessments, while our approach uses the iCub robot to provide quantitative metrics. In our proof-of-concept study,...

Being surrounded by others has enabled humans to optimize everyday life tasks, as the mere presence of others can improve performance in some daily tasks. At the same time, the presence of an audience can also be detrimental to an individual's performance. Still, it is unclear what happens when these “others” include artificial agents, such as robo...

The concept of scaffolding refers to the support that the environment provides in the acquisition and consolidation of new abilities. Technological advancements allow for support in the acquisition of cognitive capabilities, such as second language acquisition using simple smartphone applications There is, however, one domain of cognition that has...

The concept of scaffolding refers to the support that the environment provides in the acquisition and consolidation of new abilities . Technological advancements allow for support in the acquisition of cognitive capabilities, such as second language acquisition using simple smartphone applications There is, however, one domain of cognition that has...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of sensory sensitivity during robot-assisted training for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Indeed, user-adaptation for robot-based therapies could help users to focus on the training, and thus improve the benefits of the interactions. Children diagnosed with ASD often suffer from senso...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of sensory sensitivity during robot-assisted training for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Indeed, user-adaptation for robot-based therapies could help users to focus on the training, and thus improve the benefits of the interactions. Children diagnosed with ASD often suffer from senso...

To enhance collaboration between humans and robots it might be important to trigger towards humanoid robots, similar social cognitive mechanisms that are triggered towards humans, such as the adoption of the intentional stance (i.e., explaining an agents behavior with reference to mental states). This study aimed (1) to measure whether a film modul...

To enhance collaboration between humans and robots it might be important to trigger towards humanoid robots, similar social cognitive mechanisms that are triggered towards humans, such as the adoption of the intentional stance (i.e., explaining an agents behavior with reference to mental states). This study aimed (1) to measure whether a film modul...

Background Socially assistive robots have the potential to become a powerful therapeutic tool for individuals affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, to date, only a few studies explored the efficacy of robot-assisted training embedded in structured clinical protocols. The current study aimed at investigating the beneficial effects of...

The presence of artificial agents in our everyday lives is continuously increasing. Hence, the question of how human social cognition mechanisms are activated in interactions with artificial agents, such as humanoid robots, is frequently being asked. One interesting question is whether humans perceive humanoid robots as mere artifacts (interpreting...

Artificial agents are on their way to interact with us daily. Thus, the design of embodied artificial agents that can easily cooperate with humans is crucial for their deployment in social scenarios. Endowing artificial agents with human-like behavior may boost individuals’ engagement during the interaction. We tested this hypothesis in two screen-...

The presence of artificial agents in our everyday lives is continuously increasing. Hence, the question of how human social cognition mechanisms are activated when we interact with artificial agents, such as humanoid robots, has been asked. One interesting question is whether humans perceive humanoid robots as mere artefacts (interpreting their beh...

Artificial agents are on their way to interact with us daily. Thus, the design of embodied artificial agents that can easily cooperate with humans is crucial for their deployment in social scenarios. Endowing artificial agents with human-like behavior may boost individuals' engagement during the interaction. We tested this hypothesis in two screen-...

The exploitation of Social Assistive Robotics (SAR) will bring to the emergence of a new category of users, namely experts in clinical rehabilitation, who do not have a background in robotics. The first aim of the present study was to address individuals’ attitudes towards robots within this new category of users. The secondary aim was to investiga...

In the absence of target treatments or vaccination, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic can be impeded by effectively implementing containment measures and behaviors. This relies on individuals’ adoption of protective behaviors, their perceived risk, and the use and trust of information sources. During a health emergency, receiving timely and accurate informat...

Mental activities are a fascinating mystery that humans have tried to unveil since the very beginning of philosophy. We all try to understand how other people “tick” and formulate hypotheses, predictions, expectations and, morebroadly, representations of the others’ goals, desires and intentions, and behaviors following from those. We “think” spont...

The exploitation of Social Assistive Robotics (SAR) will bring to the emergence of a new category of users, namely experts in clinical rehabilitation, who do not have a background in robotics. The aim of the present study was twofold. First, we were interested in addressing individual differences in the attitudes towards robots this new category of...

Designing artificial agents that can closely imitate human behavior, might influence humans in perceiving them as intentional agents. Nonetheless, the factors that are crucial for an artificial agent to be perceived as an animated and anthropomorphic being still need to be addressed. In the current study, we investigated some of the factors that mi...

Socially assistive robots have the potential to become a powerful therapeutic tool for individuals affected by the autism-spectrum condition (ASC). However, to date, only a few studies investigated the efficacy of robot-assisted training in structured protocols. The current study aimed at investigating the beneficial effects of a robot-assisted tra...

Human-robot interaction research could benefit from knowing how various parameters of robotic eye movement control affect specific cognitive mechanisms of the user, such as attention or perception. In the present study, we systematically teased apart control parameters of Trajectory Time of robot eye movements (rTT) between two joint positions and...

Human-robot interaction research could benefit from knowing how various parameters of robotic eye movement control affect specific cognitive mechanisms of the user, such as attention or perception. In the present study, we systematically teased apart control parameters of Trajectory Time of robot eye movements (rTT) between two joint positions and...

Humans predict others’ behavior based on mental state inferences and expectations created on previous interactions. On the brink of the introduction of artificial agents in our social environment, the question of whether humans would use similar cognitive mechanisms to interact with these agents gains relevance. Recent research showed that people c...

Unfortunately, the authors of this article had failed to add an acknowledgement to their contribution. This missing acknowledgement was added to the article and reads as follows: Acknowledgement: This work received support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant awarded...

Humans predict others’ behavior based on mental state inferences and expectations created on previous interactions. On the brink of the introduction of artificial agents in our social environment, the question of whether humans would use similar cognitive mechanisms to interact with these agents gains relevance. Recent research showed that people c...

Understanding how humans adopt the intentional stance toward artificial agents is fundamental. The adoption of intentional stance towards artificial agents can require some cognitive effort due to a possible conflict. Nowadays, pupillary response is a reliable psychophysiological measure of cognitive effort. In the present study, we investigated wh...

We tested if peripheral levels of cytokines and chemokines associate to grey matter volumes, cortical thickness and fMRI neural responses to a moral valence decision task in bipolar patients. ICAM1 and CCL4 negatively correlated with cortical thickness in Inferior Temporal Gyrus, and sCD25 in Parahippocampal Gyrus. TNF-α, Interleukine-8, and CCL2 c...

In daily social interactions, we need to be able to navigate efficiently through our social environment. According to Dennett (1971), explaining and predicting others’ behavior with reference to mental states (adopting the intentional stance) allows efficient social interaction. Today we also routinely interact with artificial agents: from Apple’s...

Despite well-developed cognitive control mechanisms in most adult healthy humans, attention can still be captured by irrelevant distracting stimuli occurring in the environment. However, when it comes to artificial agents, such as humanoid robots, one might assume that its attention is “programmed” to follow a task, thus, being distracted by attent...

Despite well-developed cognitive control mechanisms in most adult healthy humans, attention can still be captured by irrelevant distracting stimuli occurring in the environment. However, when it comes to artificial agents, such as humanoid robots, one might assume that its attention is “programmed” to fol-low a task, thus, being distracted by atten...

Despite well-developed cognitive control mechanisms in most adult healthy humans, attention can still be captured by irrelevant distracting stimuli occurring in the environment. However, when it comes to artificial agents, such as humanid robots, one might assume that its attention is “programmed” to follow a task, thus, being distracted by attenti...

Awarded as second best poster at the 3rd workshop from the series "Understanding others: Integration of Social Cognitive and Affective Processes", Dresden, 13-14 September 2018.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe illness characterized by recurrent depressive and manic episodes and by emotional dysregulation. Altered cortico-limbic connectivity could account for typical symptoms of the disorder such as mood instability, emotional dysregulation, and cognitive deficits. Functional connectivity positively associated with glutam...

In daily social interactions, we explain and predict behaviours of other humans by referring to mental states that we assume underlie their behaviours. In other words, we adopt the intentional stance (Dennett, 1971) towards other humans. However, today we also routinely interact with artificial agents: from Apple’s Siri to GPS navigation systems. I...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect the development of social cognition (and identify a risk factor for several physical and mental disorders). Theory of Mind (ToM) is a key predictor of social functioning, mental health, and quality of life. No previous study explored the effect of mild ACEs on the neural correlates of ToM in healthy human...

The interaction between biological and environmental factors (especially adverse childhood experiences, ACEs) plays a crucial role in the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD). These factors act influencing BPD core features such as pervasive instability in affect regulation, impulse control, social cognition, and int...