Papers
6
Total Citations
156
H-Index
6
About
Eszter Somogyi is a leading researcher at the intersection of developmental psychology, cognitive robotics, and human-robot interaction. Her work fundamentally explores how infants and children come to know their own bodies, develop motor skills, and form social bonds—insights she then translates into computational models for autonomous robots. A central contribution is her theoretical framework of "intrinsic goals," which posits that the first "object" infants play with is their own body, using self-generated sensorimotor exploration to build a foundational body map. Her highly cited 2017 study (63 citations) meticulously documented how infants aged 3 to 21 months learn to reach for and remove a vibrotactile buzzer applied to different body parts, revealing a developmental trajectory of body awareness. Somogyi has also made significant strides in social robotics, comparing children’s interactions with therapy dogs versus biomimetic robots. Her 2020 paper (34 citations) showed that children’s evaluations of a robot are heavily influenced by their animistic beliefs and the quality of social interaction, a finding critical for designing effective therapeutic technologies. Through her editorial work and computational models of open-ended learning, she continues to bridge the gap between biological development and artificial intelligence, shaping how we understand the emergence of self, body representation, and goal-directed action.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 3Know Your Body Through Intrinsic Goals27 citations · 2018
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