Davide Massaro
Biographic Data
| ID | 1106476 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Davide Massaro |
| GIVEN NAMES | Davide |
| FAMILY NAME | Massaro |
| SIGNATURE | MASSARO D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4511-6897 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Artificial Intelligence and the Illusion of Understanding: A Systematic Review of Theory of Mind and Large Language Models
The development of Large Language Models (LLMs) has sparked significant debate regarding their capacity for Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others. This systematic review examines the extent to which LLMs exhibit Artificial ToM (AToM) by evaluating their performance on ToM tasks and comparing it with human responses. While LLMs, particularly GPT-4, perform well on first-order false belief tasks, they str…
Art made by artificial intelligence: The effect of authorship on aesthetic judgments
Playing with robots in a nursery: A sociomaterial focus on interaction and learning
In the field of educational robotics, it is important to understand the processes trough which child-robot interactions are established during play activities. In terms of socio-material characteristics, robots can vary widely, from more mechanical robots to more anthropomorphic ones. Research has shown that the degree of anthropomorphization of the robot has an impact on how children perceive and interact with the robot. The role of the socio-ma…
Cross-cultural moral judgments and emotions in preschoolers: Human and robot transgressions in Japan and Italy
The study aims to investigate the effect of cultural background between Italy and Japan on 5-year-old children’s moral judgements and emotion attributions towards human and robot. The children watched videos drawn from classic ‘happy victimizer’ stories, in which the transgressors were either a child or a robot, violating rules against stealing or not sharing. We assessed the children’s attribution of emotions both to the transgressors and to the…
The Importance of Being Consistent: Attribution of Mental States in Strategic Human–Robot Interactions
This article investigates the attribution of mental state (AMS) to an anthropomorphic robot by humans in a strategic interaction. We conducted an experiment in which human subjects are paired with either a human or an anthropomorphic robot to play an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game, and we tested whether AMS is dependent on the robot “consistency,” that is, the correspondence between the robot’s verbal reaction and its behavior after a nonoptima…
Shared Knowledge in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
According to the Theory of Natural Pedagogy, object-directed emotion may provide different information depending on the context: in a communicative context, the information conveys culturally shared knowledge regarding the emotional valence of an object and is generalizable to other individuals, whereas, in a non-communicative context, information is interpreted as a subjective disposition of the person expressing the emotion, i.e., personal pref…
A theory of mind training for people with multiple sclerosis: Development of a scale to assess the treatment acceptability
Measuring cognitive and affective Theory of Mind with the Italian Yoni task: Normative data and short versions
Theory of Mind (ToM), a high-order human social cognition skill, is relevant for mental health and wellbeing and frequently impaired in many clinical conditions. To detect ToM difficulties, validated and standardized measures need to be adopted in clinical practice. The Yoni task provides a comprehensive evaluation of first-order, second-order, affective and cognitive mentalistic inferences. However, the Yoni task remains a time-demanding tool wi…
Infants’ Prediction of Humanoid Robot’s Goal-Directed Action
Several studies have shown that infants anticipate human goal-directed actions, but not robot’s ones. However, the studies focusing on the robot goal-directed actions have mainly analyzed the effect of mechanical arms on infant’s attention. To date, the prediction of goal-directed actions in infants has not yet been studied when the agent is a humanoid robot. Given this lack of evidence in infancy research, the present study aims at analyzing inf…
Supporting mentalizing in primary school children: The effects of thoughts in mind project for children (TiM-C) on metacognition, emotion regulation and theory of mind
Mentalization is a useful ability for social functioning and a crucial aspect of mentalizing is emotion regulation. Literature suggests programmes for children and adults to increase mentalizing abilities useful both for emotional and social competences. For this reason, the issue of how to prompt children's mentalization has started to attract researchers' attention, supporting the importance of the interpersonal dimension for the individual dif…
Increasing Refugees' Work and Job Search Self-Efficacy Perceptions by Developing Career Adaptability
Today's unstable labor market increasingly requires flexibility and adaptability to cope with the threat of unemployment. Though this threat can cause distress in many people, its negative impact is even more significant on vulnerable workers such as refugees. This study aimed to explore if a career counseling intervention designed for refugees (CCfR) preceded increases in career adaptability and, therefore, perceptions of both work self-efficacy…
Machines Like Us and People Like You: Toward Human–Robot Shared Experience
In the past years, the field of collaborative robots has been developing fast, with applications ranging from health care to search and rescue, construction, entertainment, sports, and many others. However, current social robotics is still far from the general abilities we expect in a robot collaborator. This limitation is more evident when robots are faced with real-life contexts and activities occurring over long periods. In this article, we ar…
Emerging Adults' Expectations About the Next Generation of Robots: Exploring Robotic Needs Through a Latent Profile Analysis
The investigation of emerging adults' expectations of development of the next generation of robots is a fundamental challenge to narrow the gap between expectations and real technological advances, which can potentially impact the effectiveness of future interactions between humans and robots. Furthermore, the literature highlights the important role played by negative attitudes toward robots in setting people's expectations. To better explore th…
It Does Not Matter Who You Are: Fairness in Pre-schoolers Interacting with Human and Robotic Partners
Robots Are Not All the Same: Young Adults' Expectations, Attitudes, and Mental Attribution to Two Humanoid Social Robots
The human physical resemblance of humanoid social robots (HRSs) has proven to be particularly effective in interactions with humans in different contexts. In particular, two main factors affect the quality of human-robot interaction, the physical appearance and the behaviors performed by the robot. In this study, we examined the psychological effect of two HRSs, NAO and Pepper. Although some studies have shown that these two robots are very simil…
A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots
Recent technological developments in robotics has driven the design and production of different humanoid robots. Several studies have highlighted that the presence of human-like physical features could lead both adults and children to anthropomorphize the robots. In the present study we aimed to compare the attribution of mental states to two humanoid robots, NAO and Robovie, which differed in the degree of anthropomorphism. Children aged 5, 7, a…
Does a good argument make a good answer? Argumentative reconstruction of children's justifications in a second order false belief task
Social Decision Making in Adolescents and Young Adults: Evidence From the Ultimatum Game and Cognitive Biases
During adolescence and early adulthood, individuals deal with important developmental changes, especially in the context of complex social interactions. Previous studies demonstrated that those changes have a significant impact on the social decision making process, in terms of a progressive increase of intentionality comprehension of others, of the sensitivity to fairness, and of the impermeability to decisional biases. However, neither adolesce…
Growing Up Thinking of God's Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge
The study of social cognition involves the attribution of states of mind to humans, as well as, quite recently, to nonhuman creatures, like God. Some studies support the role of social cognition in religious beliefs, whereas others ascribe religious beliefs to an ontological knowledge bias. The present study compares these distinct approaches in 37 catholic children aged 4 to 10 years, who were administered an adapted version of the unexpected co…
Body Aesthetic Preference in Preschoolers and Attraction to Canons Violation: An Exploratory Study
Sensitivity to canons of beauty as represented in the human body-and as typically defined in the Western Culture-has been poorly studied in children. Current literature shows that infants as young as about three months are sensitive to the human body structure and its parts. Using a sample of 54 three- to five-year-old children, the present study investigated preference for drawings representing the "canonical" body structure, contrasting these w…
Signs of Pretense Across Age and Scenario
Participation in imagined worlds is a hallmark of the human species, and yet we know little about the context of its early emergence. The experiments reported here replicated and extended in 2 directions Lillard and Witherington's (2004) study of how mothers pretend to have snacks, across different ages of children (15‐ to 24‐month‐olds, Experiment 1) and to a different scenario (personal grooming, Experiment 2). Mothers' pretend behaviors change…
A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots
Recent technological developments in robotics has driven the design and production of different humanoid robots. Several studies have highlighted that the presence of human-like physical features could lead both adults and children to anthropomorphize the robots. In the present study we aimed to compare the attribution of mental states to two humanoid robots, NAO and Robovie, which differed in the degree of anthropomorphism. Children aged 5, 7, a…
Robots Are Not All the Same: Young Adults' Expectations, Attitudes, and Mental Attribution to Two Humanoid Social Robots
The human physical resemblance of humanoid social robots (HRSs) has proven to be particularly effective in interactions with humans in different contexts. In particular, two main factors affect the quality of human-robot interaction, the physical appearance and the behaviors performed by the robot. In this study, we examined the psychological effect of two HRSs, NAO and Pepper. Although some studies have shown that these two robots are very simil…
Increasing Refugees' Work and Job Search Self-Efficacy Perceptions by Developing Career Adaptability
Today's unstable labor market increasingly requires flexibility and adaptability to cope with the threat of unemployment. Though this threat can cause distress in many people, its negative impact is even more significant on vulnerable workers such as refugees. This study aimed to explore if a career counseling intervention designed for refugees (CCfR) preceded increases in career adaptability and, therefore, perceptions of both work self-efficacy…
Emerging Adults' Expectations About the Next Generation of Robots: Exploring Robotic Needs Through a Latent Profile Analysis
The investigation of emerging adults' expectations of development of the next generation of robots is a fundamental challenge to narrow the gap between expectations and real technological advances, which can potentially impact the effectiveness of future interactions between humans and robots. Furthermore, the literature highlights the important role played by negative attitudes toward robots in setting people's expectations. To better explore th…
Growing Up Thinking of God's Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge
The study of social cognition involves the attribution of states of mind to humans, as well as, quite recently, to nonhuman creatures, like God. Some studies support the role of social cognition in religious beliefs, whereas others ascribe religious beliefs to an ontological knowledge bias. The present study compares these distinct approaches in 37 catholic children aged 4 to 10 years, who were administered an adapted version of the unexpected co…
Signs of Pretense Across Age and Scenario
Participation in imagined worlds is a hallmark of the human species, and yet we know little about the context of its early emergence. The experiments reported here replicated and extended in 2 directions Lillard and Witherington's (2004) study of how mothers pretend to have snacks, across different ages of children (15‐ to 24‐month‐olds, Experiment 1) and to a different scenario (personal grooming, Experiment 2). Mothers' pretend behaviors change…
Body Aesthetic Preference in Preschoolers and Attraction to Canons Violation: An Exploratory Study
Sensitivity to canons of beauty as represented in the human body-and as typically defined in the Western Culture-has been poorly studied in children. Current literature shows that infants as young as about three months are sensitive to the human body structure and its parts. Using a sample of 54 three- to five-year-old children, the present study investigated preference for drawings representing the "canonical" body structure, contrasting these w…
Does a good argument make a good answer? Argumentative reconstruction of children's justifications in a second order false belief task
Social Decision Making in Adolescents and Young Adults: Evidence From the Ultimatum Game and Cognitive Biases
During adolescence and early adulthood, individuals deal with important developmental changes, especially in the context of complex social interactions. Previous studies demonstrated that those changes have a significant impact on the social decision making process, in terms of a progressive increase of intentionality comprehension of others, of the sensitivity to fairness, and of the impermeability to decisional biases. However, neither adolesce…
Growing Up Thinking of God's Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge
The study of social cognition involves the attribution of states of mind to humans, as well as, quite recently, to nonhuman creatures, like God. Some studies support the role of social cognition in religious beliefs, whereas others ascribe religious beliefs to an ontological knowledge bias. The present study compares these distinct approaches in 37 catholic children aged 4 to 10 years, who were administered an adapted version of the unexpected co…
It Does Not Matter Who You Are: Fairness in Pre-schoolers Interacting with Human and Robotic Partners
Robots Are Not All the Same: Young Adults' Expectations, Attitudes, and Mental Attribution to Two Humanoid Social Robots
The human physical resemblance of humanoid social robots (HRSs) has proven to be particularly effective in interactions with humans in different contexts. In particular, two main factors affect the quality of human-robot interaction, the physical appearance and the behaviors performed by the robot. In this study, we examined the psychological effect of two HRSs, NAO and Pepper. Although some studies have shown that these two robots are very simil…
A Robot Is Not Worth Another: Exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots
Recent technological developments in robotics has driven the design and production of different humanoid robots. Several studies have highlighted that the presence of human-like physical features could lead both adults and children to anthropomorphize the robots. In the present study we aimed to compare the attribution of mental states to two humanoid robots, NAO and Robovie, which differed in the degree of anthropomorphism. Children aged 5, 7, a…
Machines Like Us and People Like You: Toward Human–Robot Shared Experience
In the past years, the field of collaborative robots has been developing fast, with applications ranging from health care to search and rescue, construction, entertainment, sports, and many others. However, current social robotics is still far from the general abilities we expect in a robot collaborator. This limitation is more evident when robots are faced with real-life contexts and activities occurring over long periods. In this article, we ar…
Emerging Adults' Expectations About the Next Generation of Robots: Exploring Robotic Needs Through a Latent Profile Analysis
The investigation of emerging adults' expectations of development of the next generation of robots is a fundamental challenge to narrow the gap between expectations and real technological advances, which can potentially impact the effectiveness of future interactions between humans and robots. Furthermore, the literature highlights the important role played by negative attitudes toward robots in setting people's expectations. To better explore th…
Supporting mentalizing in primary school children: The effects of thoughts in mind project for children (TiM-C) on metacognition, emotion regulation and theory of mind
Mentalization is a useful ability for social functioning and a crucial aspect of mentalizing is emotion regulation. Literature suggests programmes for children and adults to increase mentalizing abilities useful both for emotional and social competences. For this reason, the issue of how to prompt children's mentalization has started to attract researchers' attention, supporting the importance of the interpersonal dimension for the individual dif…
Increasing Refugees' Work and Job Search Self-Efficacy Perceptions by Developing Career Adaptability
Today's unstable labor market increasingly requires flexibility and adaptability to cope with the threat of unemployment. Though this threat can cause distress in many people, its negative impact is even more significant on vulnerable workers such as refugees. This study aimed to explore if a career counseling intervention designed for refugees (CCfR) preceded increases in career adaptability and, therefore, perceptions of both work self-efficacy…
A theory of mind training for people with multiple sclerosis: Development of a scale to assess the treatment acceptability
Measuring cognitive and affective Theory of Mind with the Italian Yoni task: Normative data and short versions
Theory of Mind (ToM), a high-order human social cognition skill, is relevant for mental health and wellbeing and frequently impaired in many clinical conditions. To detect ToM difficulties, validated and standardized measures need to be adopted in clinical practice. The Yoni task provides a comprehensive evaluation of first-order, second-order, affective and cognitive mentalistic inferences. However, the Yoni task remains a time-demanding tool wi…
Infants’ Prediction of Humanoid Robot’s Goal-Directed Action
Several studies have shown that infants anticipate human goal-directed actions, but not robot’s ones. However, the studies focusing on the robot goal-directed actions have mainly analyzed the effect of mechanical arms on infant’s attention. To date, the prediction of goal-directed actions in infants has not yet been studied when the agent is a humanoid robot. Given this lack of evidence in infancy research, the present study aims at analyzing inf…
The Importance of Being Consistent: Attribution of Mental States in Strategic Human–Robot Interactions
This article investigates the attribution of mental state (AMS) to an anthropomorphic robot by humans in a strategic interaction. We conducted an experiment in which human subjects are paired with either a human or an anthropomorphic robot to play an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game, and we tested whether AMS is dependent on the robot “consistency,” that is, the correspondence between the robot’s verbal reaction and its behavior after a nonoptima…
Shared Knowledge in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
According to the Theory of Natural Pedagogy, object-directed emotion may provide different information depending on the context: in a communicative context, the information conveys culturally shared knowledge regarding the emotional valence of an object and is generalizable to other individuals, whereas, in a non-communicative context, information is interpreted as a subjective disposition of the person expressing the emotion, i.e., personal pref…
Artificial Intelligence and the Illusion of Understanding: A Systematic Review of Theory of Mind and Large Language Models
The development of Large Language Models (LLMs) has sparked significant debate regarding their capacity for Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others. This systematic review examines the extent to which LLMs exhibit Artificial ToM (AToM) by evaluating their performance on ToM tasks and comparing it with human responses. While LLMs, particularly GPT-4, perform well on first-order false belief tasks, they str…
Art made by artificial intelligence: The effect of authorship on aesthetic judgments
Playing with robots in a nursery: A sociomaterial focus on interaction and learning
In the field of educational robotics, it is important to understand the processes trough which child-robot interactions are established during play activities. In terms of socio-material characteristics, robots can vary widely, from more mechanical robots to more anthropomorphic ones. Research has shown that the degree of anthropomorphization of the robot has an impact on how children perceive and interact with the robot. The role of the socio-ma…
Cross-cultural moral judgments and emotions in preschoolers: Human and robot transgressions in Japan and Italy
The study aims to investigate the effect of cultural background between Italy and Japan on 5-year-old children’s moral judgements and emotion attributions towards human and robot. The children watched videos drawn from classic ‘happy victimizer’ stories, in which the transgressors were either a child or a robot, violating rules against stealing or not sharing. We assessed the children’s attribution of emotions both to the transgressors and to the…
Psychology (20 works) · Artificial Intelligence (12 works) · Cognitive psychology (12 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Social Robot Interaction and HRI (10 works) · Robot (9 works) · Attribution (6 works)