Anthony M. Harrison

About

Anthony M. Harrison is a leading researcher at the intersection of cognitive science and robotics, specializing in embodied cognition, human-robot interaction, and cognitive architectures. His most influential work, the development of ACT-R/E (Adaptive Character of Thought-Rational / Embodied), provides a groundbreaking framework for modeling human-like cognition in robotic systems, enabling robots to understand and predict human behavior during collaborative tasks. Harrison’s research on theory of mind has been pivotal in addressing human variability in team operations, allowing robots to accommodate unexpected actions through sophisticated mental state attribution. His studies on gaze-following and spatial cognition, grounded in developmental psychology, have produced cognitively plausible models that run on physical robotic platforms. With over 470 citations across his top-cited papers, Harrison’s contributions extend to practical applications like human-robot firefighting teams and user-centered robot design, exemplified by the SCIPRR head platform. His work on event segmentation and interruption resumption further demonstrates his commitment to bridging cognitive theory with real-world robotic performance, making him a key figure in advancing socially intelligent and adaptive robotic systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   ACT-R/E: An Embodied Cognitive Architecture for Human-Robot Interaction

   219 citations · 2013
2. 2
   Accommodating human variability in human-robot teams through theory of mind

   73 citations · 2011
3. 3
   “Like-Me” Simulation as an Effective and Cognitively Plausible Basis for Social Robotics

   53 citations · 2009
4. 4
   An Embodied Model of Infant Gaze-Following

   30 citations · 2009
5. 5
   Embodied Spatial Cognition

   28 citations · 2011
6. 6
   Episodes, events, and models

   20 citations · 2015
7. 7
   Building and Verifying a Predictive Model of Interruption Resumption

   16 citations · 2012
8. 8
   User-Centered Robot Head Design

   15 citations · 2018
9. 9
   Beyond Programming: Can Robots' Norm-Violating Actions Elicit Mental State Attributions?

   10 citations · 2019
10. 10
    Fighting fires with human robot teams

    10 citations · 2012

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links