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About

Ebru Baykara is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI) and cognitive neuroscience, exploring how humans perceive and collaborate with social robots. Her work centers on the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying human-robot joint action, particularly whether people adopt an “intentional stance”—attributing mental states like beliefs and desires—toward humanoid robots. Her most-cited paper, “Do We Adopt the Intentional Stance Toward Humanoid Robots?” (2019, 215 citations), investigates this foundational question, revealing how our social cognition adapts to artificial agents. She also pioneered the adaptation of cognitive neuroscience paradigms to HRI, as demonstrated in “Joint Action with iCub: a Successful Adaptation of a Paradigm of Cognitive Neuroscience in HRI” (2018, 17 citations), where she used the iCub robot to study human behavioral and neural responses during cooperative tasks. This work bridges experimental psychology and robotics, offering insights for designing robots that communicate social signals effectively. With over 240 total citations, Baykara’s research has significant implications for developing intuitive, socially aware robots that can seamlessly integrate into human environments, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical design in social robotics.