Language Acquisition

Cognitive development

Multimodal Interaction  

Gesture and Learning

Developmental Robotics

Explainable Artificial Systems

Member of SICP

Scientific director of the SprachSpielLabor 

since 2020: Specialty Chief Editor in Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology

2018 - 2021: Member of the Senate of the Paderborn University

2009 - 2019: Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee

since 2017: Collaborating partner in the GI NRW Graduate Institute, section "Digitization in Economy and Society"

2012 - 2018: IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee: Chair of Education

since 2011: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the journal L.O.G.O.S. INTERDISZIPLINÄR

since 2009: Member of the Bielefeld Institute for Early Childhood Development e.V.

2009 - 2019: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the journal IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems

Schilling, M., Rohlfing, K. J., Vogt, P., Yu, C. & J., Spranger, M. (2020): Multidisciplinary perspectives on mechanisms of language learning. Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems.

Rohlfing, K. J. & Müller-Brauers, C. (2020): International perspectives on digital media and early literacy: The impact of digital devices on learning, language acquisition, and social interaction. Routledge.

Kümmerling-Meibauer, B., Meibauer, J., Rohlfing, K. J. & Nachtigäller, K. (2015): Learning from picturebooks. Perspectives from child development & literacy studies. Routledge series in Explorations in Developmental Psychology.

Deák, G. , K. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2013): Microdynamics of Interaction: Capturing and Modeling Early Social Learning. Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development.

Nomikou, I, Pitsch, K. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2013): Asymmetric Interaction. Special Issue of the Interaction Studies.

Rohlfing, K. J. & Tani, J. (2011): Grounding Language in Action. Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 3.

Rohlfing, K. J. (2013): Frühkindliche Semantik. Tübingen: Günter Narr Verlag (Narr Studienbücher).

Rohlfing, K. J. (2019): Frühe Sprachentwicklung. Tübingen: UTB.

Rohlfing, K. J., Lüke, C., Liszkowski, U., Ritterfeld, U. & Grimminger, A. (2022): Developmental paths of pointing for various motives in infants with and without language delay. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19: 094982.

Mertens, U. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2021): Progressive reduction of iconic gestures contributes to school-aged children’s increased word production. Frontiers in Psychology 12: 651725.

Crawshaw, C. E., Kern, F., Mertens, U., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2020). Children’s narrative elaboration after reading a storybook versus viewing a video. Frontiers in Psychology, 11: 569891.

Lüke, C., Ritterfeld, U. Grimminger, A., Rohlfing, K. J. & Liszkowski, U. (2020): Integrated Communication System: Gesture and language acquisition in typically developing children and children with LD and DLD. Frontiers in Psychology 11: 118.

Rohlfing, K. J. (2019): Language learning from the use of gestures. In: Horst, J. & Koss Torkildsen, J. v. (Eds.): International Handbook of Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge: 213–233.

Rohlfing, K. J. & Kern, F. (2019): Integration von Gesten und Lautsprache aus der Perspektive des Spracherwerbs. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes 66(4): 402–407.

Rohlfing, K. J., Nachtigäller, K., Berner, A. & Foltz, A. (2019): Does emotional narrative context influence retention of newly learned words? In: Veneziano, E. & Nicolopoulou, A (Eds.): Narrative, Literacy and Other Skills. Studies in intervention. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 91–107.

Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J., Cimiano, P., & Mandler, J. M. (2018): Evidence for early comprehension of action verbs. Language Learning and Development, 1–11.

Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J. & Deacon, T. W. (2018): Language development from an ecological perspective: Ecologically valid ways to abstract symbols. Ecological Psychology 30: 39–73.

Lüke, C., Ritterfeld, U., Grimminger, A., Liszkowski, U. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2017): Development of pointing gestures in children with typical and delayed language acquisition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 60: 3185–3197.

Rohlfing, K. J., Grimminger, A. & Lüke, C. (2017): An interactive view on the development of deictic pointing in infancy. Frontiers in Psychology 8: 1319.

Lüke, C., Grimminger, A., Rohlfing, K. J., Liszkowski, U. & Ritterfeld, U.,  (2017): In infants' hands: Identification of preverbal infants at risk for primary language delay. Child Development 88(2), 484–492.

Rohlfing, K. J., Ceurremans, J. & Horst, J. S. (2017): Benefits of repeated book readings in children with SLI. Communication Disorders Quarterly.

Heller, V. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2017): Reference as an interactive achievement: Sequential and longitudinal analyses of labeling interactions ins shared book reading and free play. Frontiers in Psychology 8: 139.

Grimminger, A., Lüke, C., Ritterfeld, U., Liszkowski, U. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2016). Effekte von Objekt-Familiarisierung auf die frühe gestische Kommunikation. Frühe Bildung, 5: 91–98.

Rohlfing, K. J. & Nachtigäller, K. (2016): Can 28-month-old children learn spatial prepositions robustly from pictures? Yes, when narrative input is provided. Frontiers in Language Science 7: 961.

Rohlfing, K. J., Wrede, B., Vollmer, A. L., & Oudeyer, P. Y. (2016): An alternative to mapping a word onto a concept in language acquisition: pragmatic frames. Frontiers in Cognitive Science 7: 470.

Grimminger, A. & & Rohlfing, K. J.  (2016): Entstehung multimodaler Sprachlehrstrategien in spezifischen Interaktionen. In: Müller, C., Stark, L. & Gressnich, E. (Eds): Lernen durch Vorlesen. Interdisziplinäre Beiträge aus Forschung und Praxis: 94–109.

Rohlfing, K. J., Grimminger, A. & Nachtigäller, K. (2015): Gesturing in joint book reading. In: Kümmerling-Meibauer, B., Meibauer, J., Rohlfing, K. J. & Nachtigäller, K. (Eds): Learning from picturebooks. Perspectives from child development & literacy studies. Routledge Series in Explorations in Developmental Psychology: 99–116.

Rohlfing, K. J. & Nomikou, I. (2014): Intermodal synchrony – as a form of maternal responsiveness – is associated with language development. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 5(1): 117–136.

Krause, F., Richter, K., Rohlfing, K. J. (2014): Ich oder Du? Die Therapie der pronominalen Umkehr bei Autismus-Spektrum-Störung. Eine vergleichende Einzelfallstudie nach der Angewandten Verhaltensanalyse mit Verbal Behavior und der Model/Rival-Methode. L.O.G.O.S. 22: 4–15.

Nachtigäller, K., Rohlfing, K. J. & McGregor, K. K. (2013): A story about a word — Does narrative presentation promote learning of a spatial preposition in German two-year-olds? Journal of Child Language 40: 900–917.

Lehmden von, F., Kauffeldt, J., Belke, E. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2013): Das Vorlesen von Kinderbüchern als implizites Mittel zur Sprachförderung im Bereich Grammatik. Praxis Sprache 1: 18–27.

Lüke, C., Rohlfing, K. J., & Stenneken, P. (2011): Gebärden und kommunikative Mitteilungen bei Kindern mit umschriebener Sprachentwicklungsstörung. Sprache Stimme Gehör 3: 149–157.

Rohlfing, K. J. (2011): Exploring „Associative talk“: When German mothers instruct their two year olds about spatial tasks. Dialogue and Discourse 2: 1–18.

Grimminger, A., Rohlfing, K. J. & Stenneken, P. (2010): Children’s lexical skills and task demands affect gestural behavior in mothers of late-talking children and children with typical language development. Gesture, 10, 251–278. Gesture 10: 251–278.

McGregor, K. K., Rohlfing, K. J., Bean, A. & Marschner, E. (2009): Gesture as a support for word learning: The case of under. Journal of Child Language 36: 807–828.

Booth, A.E., McGregor, K.K. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2008): Socio-pragmatics and attention: Contributions to gesturally guided word learning in toddlers. Journal of Language Learning and Development 4: 179–202.

Rohlfing, K. J. (2006): Facilitating the acquisition of UNDER by means of IN and ON — a training study in Polish. Journal of Child Language 33: 51–69.

Tolksdorf, N. F., Crawshaw, C. E., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2021). Comparing the effects of a different social partner (social robot vs. human) on children’s social referencing in interaction. Frontiers in Education 5: 569615. 

Tolksdorf, N. F., Siebert, S., Zorn, I., Horwath, I. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2020): Ethical considerations of applying robots in kindergarten settings: Towards an approach from a macroperspective. International Journal of Social Robotics. 

Rohlfing, K. J., Grimminger, A. & Wrede, B. (2020): The caregiver’s role in keeping a child–robot interaction going. In: Rohlfing, K. J. & Müller-Brauers, C. (Eds): International perspectives on digital media and early literacy: The impact of digital devices on learning, language acquisition, and social interaction. Routledge: 73–89.

Grimminger, A., Rohlfing, K. J., Lüke, C., Liszkowski, U., & Ritterfeld, U. (2020). Decontextualized talk in caregivers’ input to 12-month-old children during structured interaction. Journal of Child Language, 47(2): 418-434. doi: 10.1017/S0305000919000710

Siebert, S., Tolksdorf, N., Rohlfing, K. & Zorn, I. (2019). Raising robotic natives?: Persuasive potentials of social robots in early education. The Journal of Communication and Media Studies 4(4): 21–35.

Rohlfing, K. J., Leonardi, G., Nomikou, I., Raczaszek-Leonardi, J. & Hüllermeier, E. (2019). Multimodal Turn-Taking: Motivations, methodological challenges, and novel approaches. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems.

Nomikou, I., Leonardi, G., Radkowska, A., Raczaszek-Leonardi, J., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2017). Taking up an active role: Emerging participation in early mother-infant interaction during peek-a-boo routines. Frontiers in Psychology 8: 1656.

Nomikou, I., Koke, M. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2017): Verbs in mothers’ input to six-month-olds: Synchrony between presentation, meaning, and actions Is related to later verb acquisition. Brain Sciences 7(5): 52.

Leonardi, G., Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J. & Rączaszek-Leonardi, J. (2016). Vocal interactions at the dawn of communication: The emergence of mutuality and complementarity in mother-infant interaction.  In: Proceedings of the IEEE ICDL-EpiRob 2016, Cergy-Pontoise.

Sciutti, A., Lohan, K.S., Koch, B., Gredebäck, G. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2016): Language meddles with infants‘ processing of observed actions. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 3: 46.

Nomikou, I.,  Schilling, M., Heller, V. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2016): Language—at all times. Action and interaction as contexts for enriching representations. Interaction Studies 17: 120–145.

Nomikou, I.,  Leonardi, J., Rohlfing, K. J. & Rączaszek-Leonardi, J. (2016): Constructing interaction: The development of gaze dynamics. Infant and Child Development 25: 277–295.

Szufnarowska, J., Rohlfing, K. J., Fawcett, C. & Gredebäck, G. (2014): Is ostension any more than attention? Scientific Reports 4: 5304.

Lohan, K. S., Griffiths, S. S., Sciutti, A., Partmann, T. C. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2014): Co-development of manner and path concepts in language, action, and eye-gaze behavior. TopiCS in Cognitive Science 6.

Pitsch, K., Vollmer, A.-L., Rohlfing, K. J., Fritsch, J. & Wrede, B. (2014): Tutoring in adult-child interaction. On the loop of the tutor‘s action modification and the recipient‘s gaze. Interaction Studies 15: 55–98.

Elsner, C., Bakker, M., Rohlfing, K. J., Gredebäck, G. (2014): Infants‘ online perception of give-and-take interactions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 126: 280–294.

Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J. (2013): Young children’s dialogical actions: The beginnings of purposeful intersubjectivity. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 3(5): 109–112.

Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J., Szufnarowska, J. (2013): Educating attention: recruiting, maintaining, and framing eye contact in early natural mother-infant interactions. Interaction Studies 14: 240–267.

Rohlfing, K. J., Longo, M. R. & Bertenthal, B. I. (2012): Dynamic pointing triggers shift of visual attention in young infants. Developmental Science 15: 426–435.

Rohlfing, K. J., Cimiano, P., Scharlau, I., Matzner, T., Buhl, H. M., Buschmeier, H., ... & Wrede, B. (2020). Explanation as a social practice: Toward a conceptual framework for the social design of AI systems. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems. doi: 10.1109/TCDS.2020.3044366

Rohlfing, K. J., Leonardi, G., Nomikou, I., Raczaszek-Leonardi, J. & Hüllermeier, E. (2019): Multimodal Turn-Taking: Motivations, methodological challenges, and novel approaches. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 12: 260–271. 

Gaspers, J., Cimiano, P., Rohlfing, K. & Wrede, B. (2017): Constructing a language from scratch: Combining bottom-up and top-down learning processes in a computational model of language acquisition. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 9: 183–196.

Lücking, P., Rohlfing, K. J., Wrede, B. & Schilling, M. (2016): Preschoolers’ engagement in social interaction with an autonomous robotic system. In: Proceedings of the IEEE ICDL-EpiRob 2016, Cergy-Pontoise.

Vollmer A.-L., Wrede, B., Rohlfing, K. J. & Oudeyer, P.-Y. (2016): Pragmatic Frames for teaching and learning in Human–Robot Interaction: Review and challenges. Frontiers in Neurorobotics 10: 10. 

Vollmer, A.-L., Rohlfing, K. J., Wrede, B. & Cangelosi, A. (2015): Alignment to the actions of a robot. International Journal of Social Robotics 7: 241–252.

Vollmer, A.-L., Mühlig, M., Steil, J. J., Pitsch, K., Fritsch, J., Rohlfing, K. J. & Wrede, B. (2014): Robots show us how to teach them: Feedback from robots shapes tutoring behavior during action learning. PLOS ONE 9(3): e91349.

Salem, M., Eyssel, F., Rohlfing, K. J., Kopp, S. & Joublin, F. (2013): To err is human(-like): Effects of robot gesture on perceived anthropomorphism and likeability. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 5: 313–323.

Lohan, K. S., Rohlfing, K. J., Pitsch, K., Saunders, J., Lehmann, H., Nehaniv, C. L., Fischer, K. & Wrede, B. (2012): Tutor Spotter: Proposing a feature set and evaluating it in a robotic system. International Journal of Social Robotics 4: 131–146.

Fischer, K., Foth, K., Rohlfing, K. J., & Wrede, B. (2011). Mindful tutors: Linguistic choice and action demonstration in speech to infants and robots. Interaction Studies 12: 134–161.

Cangelosi, A., Metta, G., Sagerer, G., Nolfi, S., Nehaniv, C., Fischer, K. Tani, J., Belphaeme, T., Sandini, G., Fadiga, L., Wrede, B., Rohlfing, K., Tuci, E., Dautenhahn, K., Saunders, J. & Zeschel, A. (2010): Integration of action and language knowledge: A roadmap for developmental robotics. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 2: 167–195.

Wrede, B., Kopp, S., Rohlfing, K. J., Lohse, M. & Muhl, C. (2010): Appropriate feedback in asymmetric interactions. Journal of Pragmatics 42: 2369–2384.

Schillingmann, L., Wrede, B. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2009): A computational model of acoustic packaging. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1: 226–237.

Nagai, Y. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2009): Computational analysis of Motionese toward scaffolding robot action learning. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1: 44–54.

Rolf, M., Hanheide, M. & Rohlfing, K. J. (2009): Attention via synchrony. Making use of multimodal cues in social learning. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1: 55–67.

Lohse, M., Hanheide, M., Pitsch, K., Rohlfing, K. J., Sagerer, G. (2009): Improving HRI design by applying Systemic Interaction Analysis (SInA). Interaction Studies 10: 293–323

Rohlfing, K. J., Fritsch, J., Wrede, B. & Jungmann, T. (2006): How can multimodal cues from child-directed interaction reduce learning complexity in robots? Advanced Robotics 20(10): 1183–1199.