Jenna Beaudoin
Papers
1
Total Citations
6
H-Index
1
About
Jenna Beaudoin is a developmental psychologist whose research lies at the intersection of social cognition and human-robot interaction. Her most cited work, "Children’s attribution of mental states to humans and social robots assessed with the Theory of Mind Scale" (2025, 6 citations), investigates how young children apply psychological properties to inanimate agents. In a pioneering two-study design, Beaudoin adapted the classic Theory of Mind Scale to compare 4-year-olds’ reasoning about human versus humanoid robot (NAO) protagonists. Her findings reveal nuanced patterns in how children attribute mental states—such as beliefs, desires, and intentions—to artificial others, offering critical insights into the development of social cognition in an increasingly technologically mediated world. By bridging developmental theory with emerging robotics, Beaudoin’s work has immediate implications for designing child-appropriate AI and understanding the boundaries of children’s mind perception. Her research is foundational for scholars studying theory of mind, anthropomorphism, and the ethical design of social robots for educational and therapeutic settings.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1