Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
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Fluid Interfaces

Wearable and immersive systems for cognitive enhancement and personal growth
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ML Learning

ML Learning
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Personal Robots

Building socially engaging robots and interactive technologies to help people live healthier lives, connect with others, and learn better
Project Research

Personalized Robot Storytelling Companion

Could a social robot collaboratively exchange stories with children as a peer and help improve their linguistic and storytelling skills? ...
Project Research

Words in Motion

Embodied theories of language propose that the way we communicate verbally is grounded in our bodies. Nevertheless, the way a second lang...
Project Research

Robot Expressiveness Affects Children's Learning

Prior research with preschool children has established that book reading, especially when children are encouraged to actively process the...
Project Research

SpeechBlocks

SpeechBlocks is a smartphone app that allows children to explore spelling principles in an open-ended way. Children rearrange words on th...
Post Research

Making new (robot) friends: Further reading

For the interested reader:If you'd like to learn more about the topics covered in my post,  Making new (robot) friends: Understandin...
Publication Research

Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people

Kory Westlund., J. M., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P. L., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. L. (2017). Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Project Research

Relational AI

Creating long-term interpersonal interaction and shared experiences with social robots. Many of our current projects explore the use of s...
Project Research

WordSense

As more powerful and spatially aware Augmented Reality devices become available, we can leverage the user’s context to embed reality with...
Post Research

Mixing Realities & Language Learning in the Wild

Seamlessly blend what you live with what you learn: mixed reality as a platform for language- learning “serendipitously in the wild."
Post Research

Making new (robot) friends

Understanding children's relationships with social robots
Archived
Project Research

Children Use Nonverbal Cues to Learn from Robots

When learning from human partners, infants and young children will pay attention to nonverbal signals, such as gaze and bodily orientatio...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Storytelling Companion

Children’s oral language skills in preschool can predict their academic success later in life. Helping children improve their language an...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Robotic Learning Companions

The language and literacy skills of young children entering school are highly predictive of their long-term academic success. Children fr...
Archived
Project Research

Curious Learning: Understanding Learning Behaviors for Early Literacy

Early literacy plays an important role in a child's future. However, the reality is that over 57 million children have no access to a sch...
Publication Research

Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative

Kory Westlund, J., Jeong, S., Park, H. W., Ronfard, S., Adhikari, A., Harris, P. L., David DeSteno, & Breazeal, C. (2017). Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Publication Research

A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people

Kory Westlund, J., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. (2015). A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people. In Proceedings of New Friends: The 1st International Conference on Social Robots in Therapy and Education.
Archived
Project Research

Robotic Language Learning Companions

Young children learn language not through listening alone, but through active communication with a social actor. Cultural immersion and c...
Archived
Post Research

They’re having fun… but are they learning?

How can you measure the learning outcomes of play? This has frustrated professionals in the field of early childhood education for years.