Ginevra Castellano
Biographic Data
| ID | 5118210 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ginevra Castellano |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ginevra |
| FAMILY NAME | Castellano |
| SIGNATURE | CASTELLANO G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Uppsala University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2841-6791 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Designing Socially Assistive Robots for Perinatal Depression Screening: Insights and Ethical Considerations from Two Exploratory Studies
Perinatal depression (PND) is a common mental health disorder associated with childbirth, which has high societal costs affecting up to 10% of individuals during pregnancy or postpartum. Whilst socially assistive robots (SARs) have recently proven to be useful tools in mental healthcare, and our previous work has investigated different stakeholders’ perspectives on SARs in PND screening through interview studies, gaps remain in understanding how …
Diverse social robot ethnicity performance in the classroom facilitated more expansive robot identity exploration in boys: A participatory robo-identity design study
Biases entangled with social identities such as gender and ethnicity can significantly influence educational outcomes, particularly within STEM where large gender disparities persist across education, industries, and cultures. Previous research demonstrates that norm-breaking social robots can challenge stereotypes and foster inclusivity in classrooms. Building on prior work, we present a 2x2, between-subjects study in which 156 participants aged…
Balancing Human Likeness in Social Robots: Impact on Children’s Lexical Alignment and Self-disclosure for Trust Assessment
While there is evidence that human-like characteristics in robots could benefit child-robot interaction in many ways, open questions remain about the appropriate degree of human likeness that should be implemented in robots to avoid adverse effects on acceptance and trust. This study investigates how human likeness, appearance and behavior, influence children’s social and competency trust in a robot. We first designed two versions of the Furhat r…
Towards a Socio-Legal Robotics: A Theoretical Framework on Norms and Adaptive Technologies
While recent progress has been made in several fields of data-intense AI-research, many applications have been shown to be prone to unintendedly reproduce social biases, sexism and stereotyping, including but not exclusive to gender. As more of these design-based, algorithmic or machine learning methodologies, here called adaptive technologies , become embedded in robotics, we see a need for a developed understanding of what role social norms pla…
(Counter-)stereotypical Gendering of Robots in Care: Impact on Needs Satisfaction and Gender Role Concepts in Men and Women Users
We present a video-based online study (N = 222) examining the impacts of gendering an in-home, socially assistive robot designed to aid with rehabilitative engagement. Specifically, we consider the potential impact on users’ basic psychological need (BPN) fulfillment alongside measures of the robot’s effectiveness as well as the potential impact on human caregiver gender preferences and propensity to gender stereotype more broadly. Our results su…
Explainable Embodied Agents Through Social Cues: A Review
The issue of how to make embodied agents explainable has experienced a surge of interest over the past 3 years, and there are many terms that refer to this concept, such as transparency and legibility. One reason for this high variance in terminology is the unique array of social cues that embodied agents can access in contrast to that accessed by non-embodied agents. Another reason is that different authors use these terms in different ways. Hen…
The Influence of robot personality on the development of uncanny feelings
A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots
Although research on children’s trust in social robots is increasingly growing in popularity, a systematic understanding of the factors which influence children’s trust in robots is lacking. In addition, meta-analyses in child–robot-interaction (cHRI) have yet to be popularly adopted as a method for synthesising results. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis aimed at identifying factors influencing children’s trust in robots. We constructed four…
Empathic Robot for Group Learning: A Field Study
This work explores a group learning scenario with an autonomous empathic robot. We address two research questions: (1) Can an autonomous robot designed with empathic competencies foster collaborative learning in a group context? (2) Can an empathic robot sustain positive educational outcomes in long-term collaborative learning interactions with groups of students? To answer these questions, we developed an autonomous robot with empathic competenc…
Robots for Learning
“I Know That Now, I’m Going to Learn This Next” Promoting Self-regulated Learning with a Robotic Tutor
Robots are increasingly being used to provide motivating, engaging and personalised support to learners. Robotic tutors have been able to increase student learning gain by providing personalised hints or problem selection. However, they have never been used to assist children in developing self regulated learning (SRL) skills. SRL skills allow a learner to more effectively self-assess and guide their own learning; learners that engage these skill…
Adaptive Robotic Tutors that Support Self-Regulated Learning: A Longer-Term Investigation with Primary School Children
Robots are increasingly being used to provide motivating, engaging and personalised support to learners. These robotic tutors have been able to increase student learning gain by providing personalised hints or problem selection. However, they have never been used to assist children in developing self regulated learning (SRL) skills. SRL skills allow a learner to more effectively self-assess and guide their own learning; learners that engage these…
How expressiveness of a robotic tutor is perceived by children in a learning environment
We present a study investigating the expressiveness of two different types of robots in a tutoring task. The robots used were i) the EMYS robot, with facial expression capabilities, and ii) the NAO robot, without facial expressions but able to perform expressive gestures. Preliminary results show that the NAO robot was perceived to be more friendly, pleasant and empathic than the EMYS robot as a tutor in a learning environment
Discovering social interaction strategies for robots from restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies
In this paper we propose a methodology for the creation of social interaction strategies for human-robot interaction based on restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies (WoZ). This novel experimental technique involves restricting the wizard's perceptions over the environment and the behaviors it controls according to the robot's inherent perceptual and acting limitations. Within our methodology, the robot's design lifecycle is divided into three…
Empathic Robots for Long-term Interaction: Evaluating Social Presence, Engagement and Perceived Support in Children
Empathic Robots for Long-term Interaction: Evaluating Social Presence, Engagement and Perceived Support in Children
A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots
Although research on children’s trust in social robots is increasingly growing in popularity, a systematic understanding of the factors which influence children’s trust in robots is lacking. In addition, meta-analyses in child–robot-interaction (cHRI) have yet to be popularly adopted as a method for synthesising results. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis aimed at identifying factors influencing children’s trust in robots. We constructed four…
Empathic Robot for Group Learning: A Field Study
This work explores a group learning scenario with an autonomous empathic robot. We address two research questions: (1) Can an autonomous robot designed with empathic competencies foster collaborative learning in a group context? (2) Can an empathic robot sustain positive educational outcomes in long-term collaborative learning interactions with groups of students? To answer these questions, we developed an autonomous robot with empathic competenc…
The Influence of robot personality on the development of uncanny feelings
How expressiveness of a robotic tutor is perceived by children in a learning environment
We present a study investigating the expressiveness of two different types of robots in a tutoring task. The robots used were i) the EMYS robot, with facial expression capabilities, and ii) the NAO robot, without facial expressions but able to perform expressive gestures. Preliminary results show that the NAO robot was perceived to be more friendly, pleasant and empathic than the EMYS robot as a tutor in a learning environment
Discovering social interaction strategies for robots from restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies
In this paper we propose a methodology for the creation of social interaction strategies for human-robot interaction based on restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies (WoZ). This novel experimental technique involves restricting the wizard's perceptions over the environment and the behaviors it controls according to the robot's inherent perceptual and acting limitations. Within our methodology, the robot's design lifecycle is divided into three…
Empathic Robots for Long-term Interaction: Evaluating Social Presence, Engagement and Perceived Support in Children
How expressiveness of a robotic tutor is perceived by children in a learning environment
We present a study investigating the expressiveness of two different types of robots in a tutoring task. The robots used were i) the EMYS robot, with facial expression capabilities, and ii) the NAO robot, without facial expressions but able to perform expressive gestures. Preliminary results show that the NAO robot was perceived to be more friendly, pleasant and empathic than the EMYS robot as a tutor in a learning environment
Discovering social interaction strategies for robots from restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies
In this paper we propose a methodology for the creation of social interaction strategies for human-robot interaction based on restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies (WoZ). This novel experimental technique involves restricting the wizard's perceptions over the environment and the behaviors it controls according to the robot's inherent perceptual and acting limitations. Within our methodology, the robot's design lifecycle is divided into three…
Robots for Learning
“I Know That Now, I’m Going to Learn This Next” Promoting Self-regulated Learning with a Robotic Tutor
Robots are increasingly being used to provide motivating, engaging and personalised support to learners. Robotic tutors have been able to increase student learning gain by providing personalised hints or problem selection. However, they have never been used to assist children in developing self regulated learning (SRL) skills. SRL skills allow a learner to more effectively self-assess and guide their own learning; learners that engage these skill…
Adaptive Robotic Tutors that Support Self-Regulated Learning: A Longer-Term Investigation with Primary School Children
Robots are increasingly being used to provide motivating, engaging and personalised support to learners. These robotic tutors have been able to increase student learning gain by providing personalised hints or problem selection. However, they have never been used to assist children in developing self regulated learning (SRL) skills. SRL skills allow a learner to more effectively self-assess and guide their own learning; learners that engage these…
Empathic Robot for Group Learning: A Field Study
This work explores a group learning scenario with an autonomous empathic robot. We address two research questions: (1) Can an autonomous robot designed with empathic competencies foster collaborative learning in a group context? (2) Can an empathic robot sustain positive educational outcomes in long-term collaborative learning interactions with groups of students? To answer these questions, we developed an autonomous robot with empathic competenc…
Explainable Embodied Agents Through Social Cues: A Review
The issue of how to make embodied agents explainable has experienced a surge of interest over the past 3 years, and there are many terms that refer to this concept, such as transparency and legibility. One reason for this high variance in terminology is the unique array of social cues that embodied agents can access in contrast to that accessed by non-embodied agents. Another reason is that different authors use these terms in different ways. Hen…
The Influence of robot personality on the development of uncanny feelings
A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots
Although research on children’s trust in social robots is increasingly growing in popularity, a systematic understanding of the factors which influence children’s trust in robots is lacking. In addition, meta-analyses in child–robot-interaction (cHRI) have yet to be popularly adopted as a method for synthesising results. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis aimed at identifying factors influencing children’s trust in robots. We constructed four…
Towards a Socio-Legal Robotics: A Theoretical Framework on Norms and Adaptive Technologies
While recent progress has been made in several fields of data-intense AI-research, many applications have been shown to be prone to unintendedly reproduce social biases, sexism and stereotyping, including but not exclusive to gender. As more of these design-based, algorithmic or machine learning methodologies, here called adaptive technologies , become embedded in robotics, we see a need for a developed understanding of what role social norms pla…
(Counter-)stereotypical Gendering of Robots in Care: Impact on Needs Satisfaction and Gender Role Concepts in Men and Women Users
We present a video-based online study (N = 222) examining the impacts of gendering an in-home, socially assistive robot designed to aid with rehabilitative engagement. Specifically, we consider the potential impact on users’ basic psychological need (BPN) fulfillment alongside measures of the robot’s effectiveness as well as the potential impact on human caregiver gender preferences and propensity to gender stereotype more broadly. Our results su…
Balancing Human Likeness in Social Robots: Impact on Children’s Lexical Alignment and Self-disclosure for Trust Assessment
While there is evidence that human-like characteristics in robots could benefit child-robot interaction in many ways, open questions remain about the appropriate degree of human likeness that should be implemented in robots to avoid adverse effects on acceptance and trust. This study investigates how human likeness, appearance and behavior, influence children’s social and competency trust in a robot. We first designed two versions of the Furhat r…
Designing Socially Assistive Robots for Perinatal Depression Screening: Insights and Ethical Considerations from Two Exploratory Studies
Perinatal depression (PND) is a common mental health disorder associated with childbirth, which has high societal costs affecting up to 10% of individuals during pregnancy or postpartum. Whilst socially assistive robots (SARs) have recently proven to be useful tools in mental healthcare, and our previous work has investigated different stakeholders’ perspectives on SARs in PND screening through interview studies, gaps remain in understanding how …
Diverse social robot ethnicity performance in the classroom facilitated more expansive robot identity exploration in boys: A participatory robo-identity design study
Biases entangled with social identities such as gender and ethnicity can significantly influence educational outcomes, particularly within STEM where large gender disparities persist across education, industries, and cultures. Previous research demonstrates that norm-breaking social robots can challenge stereotypes and foster inclusivity in classrooms. Building on prior work, we present a 2x2, between-subjects study in which 156 participants aged…
Artificial Intelligence (11 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Robot (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Social Robot Interaction and HRI (9 works) · AI in Service Interactions (7 works) · Human–computer interaction (6 works) · Robotics (5 works) · Human–robot interaction (4 works) · Perception (4 works)