Davide Ghiglino
Papers
24
Total Citations
477
H-Index
10
About
Davide Ghiglino is a researcher whose work sits at the compelling intersection of social cognition, human-robot interaction, and cognitive neuroscience. His research primarily investigates how humans attribute mental states and intentionality to humanoid robots — a question with profound implications for both artificial intelligence design and our understanding of the human mind itself. Ghiglino's most influential contribution, "Do We Adopt the Intentional Stance Toward Humanoid Robots?" (2019, 215 citations), examines how people apply Dennett's intentional stance framework to artificial agents, establishing a foundational lens through which subsequent work in the field has been interpreted. Building on this, he has explored the subtle behavioral and ocular cues — particularly eye movements — that trigger anthropomorphic attribution and attentional engagement in human observers, revealing how finely tuned our social perception systems truly are. Beyond fundamental cognitive science, Ghiglino has demonstrated real-world impact by applying these insights therapeutically, notably through robot-assisted training programs for children with autism spectrum disorder (2021, 46 citations). His broader concept of "artificial scaffolding" frames robot technology as a tool for augmenting human social and cognitive development. With over 400 cumulative citations, his work is shaping how researchers and designers alike think about the future of human-machine social interaction.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Do We Adopt the Intentional Stance Toward Humanoid Robots?215 citations · 2019
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- 10When Robots (pretend to) Think11 citations · 2020