Markus Lappe

Papers

Total Citations

179

H-Index

About

Markus Lappe investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying human-robot interaction, with a focus on action corepresentation and self-other integration. His major contributions center on understanding how humans mentally represent and coordinate with robotic agents, challenging earlier assumptions that corepresentation—the ability to simulate a partner’s actions to facilitate joint action—is exclusive to human-human interactions. In his highly cited 2012 work (168 citations), Lappe demonstrated that humans do corepresent robotic actions when robots appear human-like, reshaping theories of social cognition and human-robot collaboration. His 2013 study further explored the depth of self-other overlap with robotic agents, revealing that the strong integration seen in human interactions does not automatically extend to robots. This work has significant implications for designing more intuitive and socially responsive robots. Lappe’s research bridges cognitive psychology, robotics, and social neuroscience, offering critical insights into how humans perceive and interact with artificial agents. His findings inform the development of autonomous systems that can better anticipate and align with human behavior, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical applications in human-robot teamwork.