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Sam Thellman

Assistant Professor

I am a researcher in cognitive science with a focus on human-robot interaction.

My research

What does the robot perceive, know, and desire? My research focuses on people´s everyday psychological interpretations of AI systems such as self-driving vehicles and humanoid robots.

We often lack a deeper technical understanding of the artificial intelligent systems that we encounter in our daily lives. Instead, we reason about them based on assumptions about what knowledge they possess and what they want to achieve. In my research, I explore the conditions for interacting with various AI systems based on such everyday psychological assumptions. In doing so, my research contributes to knowledge about our cognition in social interaction with AI.

Two persons holding a robot head that lights up green

Publications

2024

Birgitta Thorslund, Sam Thellman, Helena Selander (2024) An Evaluation of Driver Education Goal Fulfillment in a Simulator-Based Driver Screening Test PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH SWECOG CONFERENCE, p. 155-160 (Conference paper)
Franziska Babel, Robin Welsch, Linda Miller, Philipp Hock, Sam Thellman, Tom Ziemke (2024) A Robot Jumping the Queue: Expectations About Politeness and Power During Conflicts in Everyday Human-Robot Encounters PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2024 CHI CONFERENCE ON HUMAN FACTORS IN COMPUTING SYTEMS, CHI 2024 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI
Sam Thellman, Franziska Babel, Tom Ziemke (2024) Cycling with Robots: How Long-Term Interaction Experience with Automated Shuttle Buses Shapes Cyclist Attitudes COMPANION OF THE 2024 ACM/IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION, HRI 2024 COMPANION, p. 1043-1047 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI
Birgitta Thorslund, Sam Thellman, Victor Nyberg, H. Selander (2024) Simulator-based driving test prescreening as a complement to driver testing - Toward safer and more risk-aware drivers Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 194, Article 107335 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

2023

Franziska Babel, Sam Thellman, Tom Ziemke (2023) Cyclists' Perception of Automated Shuttle Buses in Shared Spaces PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11TH CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-AGENT INTERACTION, HAI 2023, p. 467-469 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI

Teaching

I am Program chair of the Bachelor's programme in Cognitive Science, and course coordinator and teacher on the following courses:

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Bachelor's Programme in Cognitive Science, 180 credits

This programme is not available in English.

About the Division

Colleagues at HCS

About the Department