Cognitive psychology
Related papers: 20
About
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, learning, reasoning, and decision-making — essentially, how humans acquire, process, store, and use information. In robotics and AI, insights from cognitive psychology inform the design of systems that interact naturally with people, from understanding how users perceive and anthropomorphize robots to modeling human memory and motor learning for more lifelike machine behavior. Concepts like grounded cognition, intrinsic motivation, and lifelong learning drawn from cognitive psychology directly inspire neural architectures and adaptive algorithms. The field also guides human-robot interaction research, helping engineers understand how factors such as robot appearance, nonverbal cues, and emotional expression shape user trust, acceptance, and collaboration. Why does it matter? Because robots and AI systems do not operate in isolation — they must work alongside humans. Grounding technical design in how people actually think, perceive, and behave leads to safer, more intuitive, and more effective systems, particularly in sensitive domains like education, healthcare, and assistive robotics.
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Top Cited Papers
On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism.
Nicholas Epley, Adam Waytz, John T. Cacioppo
Citations: 3643 • 2007
How the Body Shapes the Mind
Shaun Gallagher
Citations: 3049 • 2005
Measurement Instruments for the Anthropomorphism, Animacy, Likeability, Perceived Intelligence, and Perceived Safety of Robots
Christoph Bartneck, Dana Kulić, Elizabeth A. Croft, Susana Zoghbi
Citations: 3034 • 2008
Continual lifelong learning with neural networks: A review
German I. Parisi, Ronald Kemker, Jose L. Part, Christopher Kanan, Stefan Wermter
Citations: 2977 • 2019
Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science
Shaun Gallagher
Citations: 2856 • 2000
Emotion and sociable humanoid robots
Cynthia Breazeal
Citations: 1266 • 2003
The neural and behavioural organization of goal-directed movements
Marc Jeannerod
Citations: 1175 • 1988
Human movement variability, nonlinear dynamics, and pathology: Is there a connection?
Nicholas Stergiou, Leslie M. Decker
Citations: 1050 • 2011
Understanding anthropomorphism in service provision: a meta-analysis of physical robots, chatbots, and other AI
Markus Blut, Cheng Wang, Nancy V. Wünderlich, Christian Brock
Citations: 1033 • 2021
Grounded Cognition: Past, Present, and Future
Lawrence W. Barsalou
Citations: 973 • 2010
Intelligence Unleashed: An argument for AI in Education
Rosemary Luckin, W. Holmes
Citations: 945 • 2016
Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley
Kurt Gray, Daniel M. Wegner
Citations: 878 • 2012
Spatio-Temporal Prediction Modulates the Perception of Self-Produced Stimuli
Sarah‐Jayne Blakemore, Chris Frith, Daniel M. Wolpert
Citations: 852 • 1999
What is intrinsic motivation? A typology of computational approaches
Pierre‐Yves Oudeyer
Citations: 805 • 2007
Matching robot appearance and behavior to tasks to improve human-robot cooperation
Jennifer L. Goetz, Sara Kiesler, Aaron Powers
Citations: 775 • 2004
Functional Stages in the Formation of Human Long-Term Motor Memory
Reza Shadmehr, Thomas Brashers-Krug
Citations: 726 • 1997
Neural Networks and Natural Intelligence
Citations: 723 • 1988
Robotic assistants in therapy and education of children with autism: can a small humanoid robot help encourage social interaction skills?
Ben Robins, Kerstin Dautenhahn, René te Boekhorst, Aude Billard
Citations: 686 • 2005
Human Motor Control
David Α. Rosenbaum
Citations: 658 • 1990
The uncanny advantage of using androids in cognitive and social science research
Karl F. MacDorman, Hiroshi Ishiguro
Citations: 639 • 2006