Sophie Monceau

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Clermont Auvergne

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About

Sophie Monceau is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, exploring how social robots influence human cognition and performance. Her key research areas include social robotics, cognitive psychology, and anthropomorphism, with a focus on how robotic presence affects attentional control and selective attention mechanisms. Monceau’s major contributions challenge assumptions about threatening robots: her highly cited 2018 study (49 citations) demonstrates that a “bad” humanoid robot merely observing human performance can actually energize attentional control, mirroring effects of human presence. Her 2019 follow-up (43 citations) investigates whether anthropomorphism—attributing human-like qualities to robots—drives these cognitive impacts, using selective attention tasks to disentangle the underlying mechanisms. This work has significant implications for designing robots that enhance human focus in workplaces or educational settings. Monceau’s research bridges robotics and psychology, offering nuanced insights into how non-human agents shape our cognitive processes. Her findings are essential for students and researchers studying human-robot collaboration, showing that even imperfect robots can positively influence human performance.