Past event

Prof Thusha Rajendran (Heriot-Watt): 'Socially assistive robots, developmental conditions and trust' School of Psychology and Neuroscience Seminar

Name: Prof Thusha Rajendran (Heriot-Watt): ‘Socially assistive robots, developmental conditions and trust'
Start: 2023-03-24T13:00:00+00:00
End: 2023-03-24T14:00:00+00:00

: Friday 24 March 2023
: 1:00pm to 2:00pm
: School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Old Library

Professor Thusha Rajendran (Heriot-Watt) will be hosted by Cat Hobaiter for this hybrid talk in the Old Library.

Title:
Theory of mind: How socially assistive robots help us to understand developmental conditions and trust.

Abstract:
Here, I will present research and theory developments in theory of mind using the lenses of autism and human-robot interaction (HRI). For example, how children with autism respond to virtual characters using joint attention and how a robot that ‘shows' a theory of mind can prime trust in a maze escape task. Further, I will show how HRI acts as mirror to better explain psychological constructs, e.g. thinking of interactional models as opposed to deficit models in understanding developmental conditions.