Josh Redstone
PhD Candidate
My research focuses primarily on conceptual and pre-theoretical issues that emerge at the intersection of social robotics, cognitive science and philosophy of mind. For instance, in my Master’s thesis in philosophy I attempted to develop a theoretical framework to explain the so-called “uncanny valley” phenomenon—the feeling of eeriness sometimes elicited by human-like robots—by drawing not only from philosophy, but cognitive psychology, social robotics and android science as well.
This led me to pursue a Ph.D. in cognitive science at Carleton University, which I began in 2013. For my doctoral thesis, I plan to continue investigating people’s emotional responses toward human-like robots. Presently, I’m particularly interested in the role that empathy plays in human-robot interaction.
I began working in the ACE lab over the summer of 2016 in order to complete one of my methodology rotations, which are a component of the Ph.D. program in cognitive science where students spend time working in a sub-discipline of cognitive science outside of their own area of expertise. For this particular methodology rotation, I’m assisting Dr. Kathleen Van Benthem in her experimental work on pilot performance. My task here is to try to identify some of the causes of simulator sickness in order to assess the feasibility of conducting studies on pilot performance using virtual reality headsets (e.g. Oculus Rift).