Leonie Terfurth
Papers
1
Total Citations
32
H-Index
1
About
Leonie Terfurth is a leading voice in social robotics, exploring the subtle, automatic ways humans perceive and interact with machines. Her research sits at the intersection of cognitive science and human-robot interaction (HRI), with a central focus on how implicit cognitive processes—beyond our conscious beliefs—shape our social encounters with robots. In her landmark paper, "Mind the Machines: Applying Implicit Measures of Mind Perception to Social Robotics" (2022, 32 citations), Terfurth challenged the field’s reliance on explicit measures, arguing that automatic perceptions of a robot’s “mind” (its agency and experience) are often missed by standard surveys. This work has been pivotal in pushing HRI toward more rigorous, psychologically grounded methodologies. Her contributions are already shaping how researchers design and evaluate social robots, ensuring that our understanding of human-robot relationships accounts for the unconscious biases that truly drive interaction. For students and scholars, Terfurth’s research is a critical reminder that what we say about robots is not always what we feel—and that the most profound insights often lie beneath the surface of conscious thought.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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