Papers
44
Total Citations
1,541
H-Index
23
About
Shoji Itakura is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of developmental psychology, cognitive science, and human-robot interaction, whose work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of how humans — particularly infants and children — perceive and relate to robotic agents. With contributions spanning over two decades, Itakura has been instrumental in developing android robots as scientific tools, most notably through his landmark 2004 work on designing humanoid platforms for studying social interaction (158 citations). His research into gaze behavior, empathy, and theory of mind has yielded remarkable insights: a 2015 electroencephalography study (168 citations) provided the first physiological evidence that humans can empathize with robots experiencing pain, while his investigations into infant gaze revealed that babies distinguish meaningfully between human and robot social cues. Itakura's 2008 study demonstrating toddlers' imitation of robot goal-directed actions opened new frontiers in understanding social cognition across species boundaries. His broader body of work — examining fairness, mental state attribution, and lifespan perspectives on human-robot relationships — has collectively accumulated hundreds of citations, establishing him as an indispensable voice in understanding the psychological and social dimensions of our increasingly robotic world.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Measuring empathy for human and robot hand pain using electroencephalography168 citations · 2015
- 2Development of an Android Robot for Studying Human-Robot Interaction158 citations · 2004
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- 4Theory of Mind and Humanoid Robots From a Lifespan Perspective86 citations · 2018
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- 6Assessing Human Likeness by Eye Contact in an Android Testbed81 citations · 2005
- 7The power of human gaze on infant learning79 citations · 2013
- 8Infants understand the referential nature of human gaze but not robot gaze58 citations · 2013
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