Papers
29
Total Citations
573
H-Index
12
About
Anna-Lisa Vollmer is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, developmental robotics, and social cognition. Her work centers on two deeply interconnected themes: how humans naturally adapt their teaching behavior when interacting with robots, and how robots function as social agents capable of influencing human behavior. Vollmer's landmark 2018 study on social conformity — now with 190 citations — demonstrated that children, unlike adults, will conform to incorrect answers when pressured by a robot peer group, a finding with profound implications for the deployment of robots in educational and social settings. Her extensive body of work on tutoring behavior reveals that humans instinctively modify their speech, motion, and feedback strategies when teaching robots, much as they do with infants, and that robot feedback in turn shapes how humans present information. With contributions spanning pragmatic frameworks for robot learning, gaze-based proxies for social engagement, and user-driven skill optimization, Vollmer has helped establish robots as legitimate tools for studying human teaching and learning processes. Her research bridges cognitive science, developmental psychology, and robotics, making her an influential voice in understanding how humans and robots mutually shape one another's behavior.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 4Robot feedback shapes the tutor’s presentation33 citations · 2013
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- 7Tutoring in adult-child interaction21 citations · 2014
- 8On Studying Human Teaching Behavior with Robots: a Review21 citations · 2017
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