Cecilia Heyes

University College London, University of Oxford, Google (United States)

Papers

Total Citations

827

H-Index

About

Cecilia Heyes is a leading cognitive psychologist whose research reshapes our understanding of the origins of social cognition. Her work challenges nativist assumptions, arguing that core social capacities—including imitation, empathy, and theory of mind—are not innate modules but are instead products of domain-general learning and cultural experience. Heyes is best known for her "associative sequence learning" theory of imitation, which posits that the mirror system develops through sensorimotor experience rather than evolutionary specialization. Her highly cited studies, such as "Robotic movement elicits automatic imitation" (245 citations) and "Intact automatic imitation of human and robot actions in autism spectrum disorders" (240 citations), demonstrate that automatic imitation is not uniquely human or biologically fixed, and that individuals with autism can imitate robots normally. In her provocative paper "Empathy is not in our genes" (207 citations), Heyes argues that empathy is shaped by social learning, not genetic determinism. Her work has profound implications for robotics, autism research, and the philosophy of mind, establishing her as a central figure in the debate over the cognitive architecture of social behavior.