Jinzhi Feng
Papers
2
Total Citations
17
H-Index
2
About
Jinzhi Feng is a developmental cognitive scientist whose research explores the foundational mechanisms of social learning in infancy, with a particular focus on gaze following as a precursor to joint attention and language development. Her most cited work, "Infants Learn to Follow Gaze in Stages: Evidence Confirming a Robotic Prediction" (2021, 15 citations), challenges representational theories by demonstrating that gaze following emerges through distinct, stage-like developmental processes—a finding that aligns with computational predictions from robotic models. Feng’s research bridges cognitive development and artificial intelligence, using robotic simulations to test hypotheses about how infants acquire social-cognitive skills without requiring rich innate sensitivities. By providing empirical evidence that gaze following develops incrementally, she offers a mechanistic account of early social cognition that has implications for understanding autism spectrum disorders and designing interactive AI systems. Her work, though early in its citation impact, represents a novel interdisciplinary approach that integrates developmental psychology, robotics, and computational modeling, positioning her as an emerging voice in debates about the origins of human social intelligence.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2