Ivy Yee‐Man Lau

University of Hong Kong, Singapore Management University

Papers

Total Citations

221

H-Index

About

Ivy Yee‐Man Lau is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a focus on how people perceive, judge, and form mental models of robots. Her most influential work, “Human Mental Models of Humanoid Robots” (2006, 172 citations), reveals that effective human-robot communication hinges on whether people share a common ground of understanding with the machine—a concept drawn from human-human studies. She further explores how a robot’s appearance and capabilities shape likability and perceived occupational suitability, and investigates moral judgment in “Hitting a robot vs. hitting a human” (2011), finding that transgressions involving robots are often seen as less severe than those involving humans. By bridging cognitive psychology and robotics, Lau’s research illuminates the subtle social and ethical dynamics that govern our relationships with intelligent machines. Her work is essential reading for anyone interested in designing robots that are not only functional but also socially and morally integrated into human life.