2008 - 2015: Senior researcher (Akademische Oberrätin), head of Emergentist Semantics Group, Cluster of Excellence "Cognitive Interaction Technology", Bielefeld University

2009: Habilitation (Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics), Bielefeld University

2005 - 2008: Postdoctoral Researcher in Applied Informatics, Bielefeld University

2004: Postdoctoral fellow, supported by a DAAD grant, Northwestern University, Department of Communication Science and Disorders

2002 - 2004: Postdoctoral fellow, supported by a DFG Emmy-Noether Phase 1 grant, University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, Department of Linguistics and Oriental Languages

2002: Doctorate

Strohner/Sinha, “UNDERstanding: How infants acquire the meaning of UNDER and other spatial relational terms” (Doctor of Philosophy, Linguistics), “summa cum laude”, Bielefeld University

1999 - 2002: Graduate student in the DFG interdisciplinary graduate program "Task-Oriented Communication" (GK 256), Bielefeld University

2000: Degree programme

Diploma in German as Foreign Language, University of Kassel, Germany

1997: Degree programme

Magister in German Linguistics, Philosophy, and Media Studies, University of Paderborn, Germany

Awards und Fellowships

2021: Honorable mention at the IDC (Interaction Design and Children)

2016: Best Paper Award IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development

2009: Best Paper Award ICDL 2009

2006: Dilthey Fellow, VolkswagenStiftung

2002: Emmy Noether-Fellow, Phase 1 (DFG)

"Children, as they grow, must acquire ways of representing the recurrent regularities in their environment, and they must transcend the momentary by developing ways of linking past to present to future—representation and integration". (Bruner, 1964)

Research

Research Interests

Language acquisition
Cognitive development
Multimodal interaction
Gesture and learning
Developmental robotics

Selected Projects

Show all projects

Publications

Latest Publications

Contrastiveness in the context of action demonstration: an eye-tracking study on its effects on action perception and action recall

A. Singh, K.J. Rohlfing, in: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 45 (45), Cognitive Science Society, Sydney, Australia, 2023.

Scaffolding the human partner by contrastive guidance in an explanatory human-robot dialogue

A. Groß, A. Singh, N.C. Banh, B. Richter, I. Scharlau, K.J. Rohlfing, B. Wrede, Frontiers in Robotics and AI 10 (2023).

DOI

Social/dialogical roles of social robots in supporting children’s learning of language and literacy—A review and analysis of innovative roles

K. Rohlfing, N. Altvater-Mackensen, N. Caruana, R. van den Berghe, B. Bruno, N.F. Tolksdorf, A. Hanulíková, Frontiers in Robotics and AI 9 (2022).

DOI

Developmental Paths of Pointing for Various Motives in Infants with and without Language Delay

K.J. Rohlfing, C. Lüke, U. Liszkowski, U. Ritterfeld, A. Grimminger, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19 (2022).

DOI

Developmental paths of pointing for various motives in infants with and without language delay.

K. Rohlfing, A. Grimminger, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19: 094982. (2022).

DOI

Show all publications

Teaching

Teaching Areas

Introduction to linguistics
Introduction to language acquisition
Gesture, cognition, and language
Learning, language, and technical support

Current Courses

Paderborner Perspektiven auf Inklusion

Scientific Engagement

Engagement in Scientific Organisations

Since 2005 | Member in Bielefelder Institut für Frühkindliche Entwicklung, Software Innovation Campus Paderborn

Editorial Boards and Editorship

2020 - 2022 | Speciality Chief Editor in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology

Further Information

Functions

Member of SICP

Scientific director of the SprachSpielLabor

2020 - 2022: 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