Papers
18
Total Citations
253
H-Index
8
About
Rebecca Stower is a prominent researcher specializing in child-robot interaction (cHRI), social robotics, and human-robot interaction (HRI), with a particular focus on how children develop trust in and learn from social robots. Her work bridges developmental psychology and robotics, generating meaningful insights into the social and cognitive dimensions of human engagement with artificial agents. Stower's most influential contribution, a 2021 meta-analysis on children's trust in social robots (90 citations), established a systematic framework for understanding the factors shaping children's trust in robotic systems — a critical foundation for the field. Her research extends into how robots are perceived as minded agents, exploring concepts such as mind perception and moral concern, as well as how multi-modal robot behaviors shape social intelligence. A particularly compelling 2024 study demonstrated that children will trust a robot over a human agent under specific reliability conditions, challenging assumptions about children's social learning hierarchies. Beyond trust, Stower investigates the nuanced mechanics of human-robot encounters, from the earliest moments of co-presence to discrepancies between users' stated attitudes and actual behaviors toward robots. Through rigorous experimental and exploratory methods, her cumulative work — spanning over 225 citations — is shaping how educators, designers, and researchers approach socially intelligent robots in real-world settings.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots90 citations · 2021
- 2
- 3A Robot by Any Other Frame25 citations · 2020
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10