Anthropomorphic “humanoid” robots are suggested to be more competent in social communicative interactions than industrial robots, because humans interact more intuitively with them. It is, therefore, critical to evaluate the acceptance of an agent as possible partner for joint interaction. One possible method is to utilize the phenomenon of motor interference (MI). It claims, that observation o...

Echolalia, the echoing of words, is a hallmark of language in children with autism. Echolalia in autistic language is generally viewed as a manifestation of gestalt learning, a particular cognitive style that impacts language learning, memory, and overall cognition. While extensive research has investigated echolalia, research has not investigated non-word echoing. This study analyzed the avera...

Several subjects with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show communicative and pragmatic problems. In this study, we suggested that mentalistic comprehension tasks would help us to find a deteriorated pragmatic profile among the population with SLI. To achieve this goal, a group of participants with conventional SLI (n=11) was compared to a group of SLI with more pragmatic problems (n=9) and t...

Recent advances in the field of cognitive neuroscience have revealed that direct gaze modulates activity in cortical and subcortical key regions of the 'social brain network', including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the anterior rostral medial prefrontal cortex (arMPFC). However, very little is known about how direct gaze is processed during live interaction with a real partner. Here, fo...

Rigorous, quantitative examination of therapeutic techniques anecdotally reported to have been successful in people with autism who lack communicative speech will help guide basic science toward a more complete characterisation of the cognitive profile in this underserved subpopulation, and show the extent to which theories and results developed with the high-functioning subpopulation may apply...

Three studies explored how the traits that people ideally desire in a romantic partner, or ideal partner preferences, intersect with the process of romantic relationship initiation and maintenance. Two attraction experiments in the laboratory found that, when participants evaluated a potential romantic partner’s written profile, they expressed more romantic interest in a partner whose traits we...