About
72
Publications
7,751
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,140
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Current institution
Publications
Publications (72)
Cognitive load occurs when the demands of a task surpass the available processing capacity, straining mental resources and potentially impairing performance efficiency, such as increasing the number of errors in a task. Owing to its ubiquity in real-world scenarios, the existence of offloading strategies to reduce cognitive load is not new to exper...
Eye contact constitutes a strong social signal in humans and affects various attentional processes. However, eye contact with another human evokes different responses compared with a direct gaze of an image on a screen. The question of interest is whether this holds also for eye contact with a robot. Previous experiments with physically present iCu...
Over the last years, social robots have been adopted to train children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) in socio-cognitive skills. Findings reveal that the social robots are well accepted by both children and stakeholders, thus opening the possibility to be used as effective tools to treat these children. In this paper awe show how with a robu...
Sense of joint agency (SoJA) is the sense of control experienced by humans when acting with others to bring about changes in the shared environment. SoJA is proposed to arise from the sensorimotor predictive processes underlying action control and monitoring. Because SoJA is a ubiquitous phenomenon occurring when we perform actions with other human...
Research has shown that, under certain circumstances, people can adopt the Intentional Stance towards robots and thus treat them as intentional agents. Previous evidence showed that there are factors at play in modulating the Intentional Stance, for example individuals’ years of education. In the present study, we aimed at investigating whether, gi...
Joint sense of agency (JSoA) is the feeling of control experienced in joint action over one’s own and a partner’s actions and is proposed to arise from the sensorimotor predictive processes underlying action control and monitoring. In the current study, using interval estimates and neural responses measured by EEG, we aimed to evaluate whether JSoA...
Recent studies showed that in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), humans perceive less agency over the negative outcomes of their actions, raising the Diffusion of responsibility (DOR) phenomenon. In the present study, we examined the effect of anthropomorphism on the reduction of agency when interacting with robots. To this end, young adults played a r...
Variability is a property of biological systems, and in animals (including humans) behavioral variability is characterized by certain features, such as the range of variability and shape of its distribution. Nevertheless, only a few studies have investigated whether and how variability features contribute to the ascription of humanness to robots in...
Research has shown that, under certain circumstances, people can adopt the Intentional Stance towards robots and thus treat them as intentional agents. One factor potentially affecting individuals’ adoption of the Intentional Stance is the type of education (and presumably their prior knowledge about robots). In the present study, we investigated w...
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the feeling of being in control of one’s actions and their outcomes. In a social context, people can experience a “vicarious” SoA over another human’s actions; however, it is still controversial whether the same occurs in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The present study aimed at understanding whether humanoid robots may eli...
When acting together with another human agent, humans form shared representations with their partner in order to predict and adjust to their partner’s behaviors and ensure a smooth and efficient joint action. Previous work has shown that humans do not form shared representations when acting with partners they do not perceive as intentional, such as...
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the feeling of being in control of one’s actions and their outcomes. In a social context, people can experience a “vicarious” SoA over another human’s actions; however, it is still controversial whether the same occurs in Human–Robot Interaction (HRI). The present study aimed at understanding whether humanoid robots may eli...
Variability is a property of biological systems, and in animals (including humans), behavioral variability is characterized by certain features, such as the range of variability and the shape of its distribution. Nevertheless, only a few studies have investigated whether and how variability features contribute to the ascription of humanness to robo...
Research has shown that people evaluate others according to specific categories. As this phenomenon seems to transfer from human-human to human-robot interactions, in the present experiment we focused on (1) the degree of prior knowledge about technology, in terms of theoretical background and technical education, and (2) intentionality attribution...
Research has shown that people evaluate others according to specific categories. As this phenomenon seems to transfer from human–human to human–robot interactions, in the present study we focused on (1) the degree of prior knowledge about technology, in terms of theoretical background and technical education, and (2) intentionality attribution towa...
The present paper outlines an approach based on joint action to overcome the Out Of The Loop (OOTL) phenomenon in HRI. Our proposed solution involves endowing artificial agents, specifically robots, with the same temporal adaptation and anticipation mechanisms that underlie mutual influence in human-human interactions. Specifically, we argue that i...
Sensorimotor signaling is a key mechanism underlying coordination in humans. The increasing presence of artificial agents, including robots, in everyday contexts, will make joint action with them as common as a joint action with other humans. The present study investigates under which conditions sensorimotor signaling emerges when interacting with...
Sensorimotor signaling is a key mechanism underlying coordination in humans. The increasing presence of artificial agents, including robots, in everyday contexts, will make joint action with them as common as a joint action with other humans. The present study investigates under which conditions sensorimotor signaling emerges when interacting with...
Robots are a new category of social agents that, thanks to their embodiment, can be used to train and support cognitive skills such as cognitive control. Several studies showed that cognitive control mechanisms are sensitive to affective states induced by humor, mood, and symbolic feedback such as monetary rewards. In the present study, we investig...
Robots are a new category of social agents that, thanks to their embodiment, can be used to train and support cognitive skills such as cognitive control. Several studies showed that cognitive control mechanisms are sensitive to affective states induced by humor, mood, and symbolic feedback such as monetary rewards. In the present study, we investig...
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the feeling of control over one's actions and their consequences. In social contexts, people experience a "vicarious" SoA over other humans' actions; however, the phenomenon disappears when the other agent is a computer. This study aimed to investigate the factors that determine when humans experience vicarious SoA in Human...
Eye contact constitutes a strong communicative signal in human interactions and has been shown to modulate various cognitive processes and states. However, little is known about its impact on gaze-mediated attentional orienting in the context of its interplay with strategic top-down control. Here, we aimed at investigating how the social component...
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the feeling of control over one’s actions and their consequences. In social contexts, people experience a “vicarious” SoA over other humans’ actions; however, the phenomenon disappears when the other agent is a computer. The present study aimed to investigate factors that determine when humans experience vicarious SoA in hu...
This paper reports a study where we examined how a humanoid robot was evaluated by users, dependent on established eye contact. In two experiments, the robot was programmed to either establish eye contact with the user, or to look elsewhere. Across the experiments, we altered the level of predictiveness of the robot’s gaze direction with respect to...
The present study aimed to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) of action planning and outcome monitoring in human-robot interaction. To this end, participants were instructed to perform costly actions (i.e. losing points) to stop a balloon from inflating and to prevent its explosion. They performed the task alone (individual condition) or with...
In this study, we examined whether the likelihood of attributing intentionality to robots is influenced by the human-likeness of errors during HRI. To this end, we designed an experimental protocol in which users performed a melody in a joint task with the iCub robot. We programmed the iCub robot to make an error in 60% of the repetitions. For half...
Eye contact constitutes a strong communicative signal in human interactions and has been shown to modulate various cognitive processes and states. However, little is known about its impact on gaze-mediated attentional orienting in the context of its interplay with strategic top-down control. Here, we aimed at investigating how the social component...
The Simon effect, that is the advantage of the spatial correspondence between stimulus and response locations when stimulus location is task irrelevant, occurs even when the task is performed by two participants, each performing a go/no-go task. This effect, known as the joint Simon effect, does not emerge when participants sit outside each other’s...
The present study aimed to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) of action planning and outcome monitoring in human-robot interaction. To this end, participants were instructed to perform costly actions (i.e. losing points) to stop a balloon from inflating and to prevent its explosion. They performed the task alone (individual condition) or with...
In the present study, we examine how person categorization conveyed by the combination of multiple cues modulates joint attention. In three experiments, we tested the combinatory effect of age, sex, and social status on gaze-following behaviour and pro-social attitudes. In Experiments 1 and 2, young adults were required to perform an instructed sac...
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...
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...
Effective social interactions rely on humans’ ability to attune to others within social contexts. Recently, it has been proposed that the emergence of shared representations, as indexed by the Joint Simon effect (JSE), might result from interpersonal coordination (Malone et al., 2014). The present study aimed at examining interpersonal coordination...
In the presence of others, sense of agency (SoA), i.e. the perceived relationship between our own actions and external events, is reduced. The present study aimed at investigating whether the phenomenon of reduced SoA is observed in human-robot interaction, similarly to human-human interaction. To this end, we tested SoA when people interacted with...
This paper reviews methods to investigate joint attention, and highlights the benefits of new methodological approaches that make use of most recent technological developments such as humanoid robots for studying social cognition. After reviewing classical approaches addressing joint attention mechanisms with the use of controlled screen-based stim...
Mutual gaze is a key element of human development, and constitutes an important factor in human interactions. In this study, we examined –through analysis of subjective reports– the influence of an online eye-contact of a humanoid robot on humans’ reception of the robot. To this end, we manipulated the robot gaze, i.e., mutual (social) gaze and neu...
This paper reports a study where we examined how a humanoid robot was evaluated by users, dependent on established eye contact. In two experiments, we manipulated how the robot gazes, namely either by looking at the subjects’ eyes (mutual gaze) or to a socially neutral position (neutral). Across the two experiments, we altered the level of predicti...
Humans are influenced by the presence of other social agents, sometimes performing better, sometimes performing worse than alone. Humans are also affected by how they perceive the social agent. The present study investigat-ed whether individual differences in the attitude toward robots can predict human behavior in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Th...
In near future, robots will become a fundamental part of our daily life; therefore, it appears crucial to investigate how they can successfully interact with humans. Since several studies already pointed out that a robotic agent can influence human’s cognitive mechanisms such as decision-making and joint attention, we focus on Sense of Agency (SoA)...
The present study aimed at investigating how eye contact established by a humanoid robot affects engagement in human-robot interaction (HRI). To this end, we combined explicit subjective evaluations with implicit measures, i.e. reaction times and eye tracking. More specifically, we employed a gaze cueing paradigm in HRI protocol involving the iCub...
This article reviews methods to investigate joint attention and highlights the benefits of new methodological approaches that make use of the most recent technological developments, such as humanoid robots for studying social cognition. After reviewing classical approaches that address joint attention mechanisms with the use of controlled screen-ba...
Humans are influenced by the presence of other social agents, sometimes performing better, sometimes performing worse than alone. Humans are also affected by how they perceive the social agent. The present study investigated whether individual differences in the attitude toward robots can predict human behavior in human-robot interaction. Therefore...
In near future, robots will become a fundamental part of our daily life; therefore, it appears crucial to investigate how they can successfully interact with humans. Since several studies already pointed out that a robotic agent can influence human’s cognitive mechanisms such as decision-making and joint attention, we focus on Sense of Agency (SoA)...
In the presence of others, sense of agency (SoA), i.e. the perceived relationship between our own actions and external events, is reduced. The present study aimed at investigating whether the phenomenon of reduced SoA is observed in human-robot interaction, similarly to human-human interaction. To this end, we tested SoA when people interacted with...
This paper reports a study where we examined how a humanoid robot was evaluated by users, dependent on established eye contact. In two experiments, the robot was programmed to either establish eye contact with the user, or to look elsewhere. Across the experiments, we altered the level of predictiveness of the robot's gaze direction with respect to...
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...
In this study, we examined if humans adapt their performance to delays in robot’s actions in a leader-follower interaction scenario. Participants were asked to “teach” a sequence of musical tones to the iCub robot. The robot repeated the sequence with decreasing delay between its own taps and taps performed by the participants. We observed that mea...
Abstract Most experimental protocols examining joint attention with the gaze cueing paradigm are “observational” and “offline”, thereby not involving social interaction. We examined whether within a naturalistic online interaction, real-time eye contact influences the gaze cueing effect (GCE). We embedded gaze cueing in an interactive protocol with...
In the presence of others, sense of agency (SoA), i.e. the perceived relationship between our own actions and external events, is reduced. This effect is thought to contribute to diffusion of responsibility. The present study aimed at examining humans’ SoA when interacting with an artificial embodied agent. Young adults participated in a task along...
Effective social interactions rely on humans’ ability to attune to others within social contexts. Recently, it has been proposed that the emergence of shared representations, as indexed by the Joint Simon effect (JSE), might result from interpersonal coordination (Malone et al., 2014). The present study aimed at examining interpersonal coordination...
In the presence of others, sense of agency (SoA), i.e. the perceived relation-ship between our own actions and external events, is reduced. This effect is thought to contribute to diffusion of responsibility. The present study aimed at examining humans’ SoA when interacting with an artificial embodied agent. Young adults participated in a task alon...
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.
Making correct inferences regarding social and individual intentions may be crucial for successful interactions, especially when we are required to discriminate between cooperative and competitive behaviors. The results of previous studies indicate that reach-to-grasp kinematic parameters may be used to infer the social or individual outcome of a m...
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...
Most experimental protocols examining joint attention with the gaze cueing paradigm are “observational” and “offline”, thereby not involving social interaction. We examined whether within a naturalistic online interaction, real-time eye contact influences the gaze cueing effect (GCE). We embedded gaze cueing in an interactive protocol with the iCub...
Recent findings suggested that the orienting of attention towards gazed at locations (i.e., the gaze cueing effect) could result from the conflict emerging in incongruent trials between the spatial information conveyed by gaze direction and the target spatial position. In two experiments, we assessed this hypothesis by investigating whether this ef...
Mutual gaze is a key element of human development, and constitutes an important factor in human interactions. In this study, we examined –through analysis of subjective reports– the influence of an online eye-contact of a humanoid robot on humans’ reception of the robot. To this end, we manipulated the robot gaze, i.e., mutual (social) gaze and neu...
In joint action, multiple people coordinate their actions to perform a task together. This often requires precise temporal and spatial coordination. How do co-actors achieve this? How do they coordinate their actions toward a shared task goal? Here, we provide an overview of the mental representations involved in joint action, discuss how co-actors...
The present study aimed at investigating the relation between field dependence-independence, measured by means of the Embedded Figure Test (EFT), and performance on the Simon task, which is usually employed to assess cognitive control processes. 20 participants classified as field-dependent and 20 participants classified as field-independent were a...
In two behavioural experiments we tested whether performing a spatial task along with another agent changes space representation by rendering some reference frames more/less salient than others. To this end, we used a Simon task in which stimuli were presented in four horizontal locations thus allowing for spatial coding according to multiple frame...
The present study investigated if the gaze-cuing effect (i.e., the tendency for observers to respond faster to targets in locations that were cued by others' gaze direction than to not-cued targets) is modulated by the type of relationship (i.e., cooperative or competitive) established during a previous interaction with a cuing face. In two experim...
Gaze-following behaviour is considered crucial for social interactions which are influenced by social similarity. We investigated whether the degree of similarity, as indicated by the perceived age of another person, can modulate gaze following. Participants of three different age-groups (18-25; 35-45; over 65) performed an eye movement (a saccade)...
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether face age and social status information associated with faces have different effects on gaze following behaviour as an index of joint attention. Participants were instructed to perform goal-directed saccades towards a peripheral stationary target, while a task-irrelevant face with averted gaze...
