Rechele Brooks

Papers

Total Citations

194

H-Index

About

Rechele Brooks is a developmental psychologist whose research illuminates how infants understand the social world, with a particular focus on gaze following and the attribution of agency. Her most influential work, the 2010 study “Social” robots are psychological agents for infants: A test of gaze following (188 citations), demonstrated that 12-month-olds will follow the “gaze” of a non-humanoid robot—but only if that robot has previously interacted contingently with them. This landmark finding revealed that infants do not simply track eyes; they infer psychological states, treating entities as social agents based on behavioral cues. Brooks further explored these themes in her 2013 chapter “Gaze Following and Agency in Human Infancy,” which traces how infants progress from simple eye-tracking to attributing perception and vision to others by 10 months of age. Her work bridges social cognition and robotics, showing that even preverbal infants distinguish between mere objects and intentional beings. By integrating rigorous experimental design with real-world implications for human-robot interaction, Brooks has shaped our understanding of the origins of social intelligence. Her contributions remain essential reading for researchers in developmental psychology, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence.