Anne Ferrey
Papers
1
Total Citations
107
H-Index
1
About
Anne Ferrey’s research delves into the cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying how we perceive and evaluate stimuli, with a particular focus on the uncanny valley—the unsettling feeling evoked by almost-human entities. Her most influential work, the 2015 paper “Stimulus-category competition, inhibition, and affective devaluation: a novel account of the uncanny valley” (107 citations), offers a groundbreaking alternative to traditional explanations. Rather than focusing on human resemblance alone, Ferrey proposes that the uncanny valley arises from stimulus-category competition: when a stimulus ambiguously straddles categories (e.g., human and non-human), cognitive inhibition and subsequent affective devaluation lead to dislike. This account reframes the phenomenon as a byproduct of categorization processes, not merely perceptual mismatch. Her work has reshaped debates in social cognition, robotics, and aesthetics, providing a testable framework for understanding why imperfect human-likeness triggers aversion. Ferrey’s contributions are notable for bridging cognitive psychology and applied fields like human-robot interaction, offering insights that inform design principles for artificial agents. Her research continues to influence how scientists and engineers approach the emotional impact of near-human stimuli.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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