Laurie R. Santos

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Laurie R. Santos is a leading figure in comparative and cognitive psychology, best known for her groundbreaking work on canine cognition and the intersection of animal behavior with human-robot interaction. Her research explores how dogs perceive and respond to social robots, addressing a critical gap in the design of personal robotics for households with pets. In her most-cited study, "Dog Sit! Domestic Dogs Follow a Robot's Sit Commands" (2020, 14 citations), Santos demonstrated that dogs can follow commands from a social robot, paving the way for more pet-inclusive technology. Her follow-up work, "Agency in Canine-Robot Interaction" (2019, 3 citations), investigated whether dogs perceive robots as intentional agents, using the classic pointing paradigm—a foundational method in animal cognition. While her citation counts reflect a niche but emerging field, Santos’s contributions are notable for bridging robotics, ethology, and psychology. Her insights challenge assumptions about animal agency and inform the ethical design of autonomous systems. Santos’s work is essential reading for students and researchers interested in how non-human animals navigate an increasingly robotic world.