Dr. Nils Frederik Tolksdorf
Research Associate
- E-Mail:
- nils.tolksdorf@uni-paderborn.de
- Phone:
- +49 5251 60-5705
- ORCID:
- 0000-0001-6093-1219
- Web:
- Homepage
- Office Address:
-
Technologiepark 6
33100 Paderborn - Room:
- TP6.2.303
- Office hours:
by arrangement
About Nils Frederik Tolksdorf
I am a researcher in the area of children's language development and learning with digital technologies. I completed my Ph.D. within the Digital Society Research Program, funded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Katharina Rohlfing. My research lies at the intersection of psycholinguistics and child–robot interaction, with a focus on language learning. I am experienced in language acquisition research, with a particular focus on multimodality, cross-situational word learning, and pragmatics. Regarding social robotics, my experience focuses on dialogue design, ethical and child-oriented implementation of the technology, and how temperamental traits influence children's interaction behavior with social robots.
Curriculum Vitae
2021: Honorable Mention ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC)
Honorable Mention for our paper Do Shy Children Keep more Distance from a Social Robot? Exploring Shy Children’s Proxemics with a Social Robot or a Human at the ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC)
Publications
Latest Publications
Multimodal Communicative Behaviours in Shy Children in Assessment Situations and Social Evaluative Contexts
F.E. Viertel, N.F. Tolksdorf, in: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education and Care, IntechOpen, 2024.
Preschoolers' Interactions with Social Robots: Investigating the Potential for Eliciting Metatalk and Critical Technological Thinking
N.F. Tolksdorf, E. Wildt, K. Rohlfing, in: Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, ACM, 2024, pp. 1053–1057.
Language Learning with Media and Technology in (Early) Childhood
K. Rohlfing, E. Wildt, N.F. Tolksdorf, Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura 6 (2024) 35–69.
How turn-timing can inform about becoming familiar with a task and its changes: a study of shy and less shy four-year-old children.
V. Tykhonenko, N.F. Tolksdorf, K. Rohlfing, in: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46, 2024.
Wortlernen mit sozialen Robotern
N.F. Tolksdorf, Wortlernen mit sozialen Robotern, A. Francke Verlag, 2024.
Show all publications
Teaching
Current Courses
- Typisches und atypisches Timing in Interaktion
- Einführung in die Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft (G/SP)
Scientific Engagement
2022 | Symposia Diversity in Children's Temperament: Perspectives on Shyness in Interaction
Organization and Chair of the Symposia; organized with Franziska Viertel (Paderborn University), Matt Hilton (Maastricht University), Kristie Poole (Brock University, Canada), and Sarah Kucker (Southern Methodist University, US)
Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci)
2021 | 365体育_足球比分网￥投注直播官网 "Child-Robot Interaction for Beginners: Supporting New Researchers (CRIB)"
Co-Organization of the 365体育_足球比分网￥投注直播官网 with Denise Y. Geiskkovitch (McMaster University), Mafalda Samuelsson-Gamboa (University of Gothenburg), David Cameron (The University of Sheffield), and Rebecca Stower (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)
2020 | Special Session "Stakeholders' Views on Social Robots in Education"
Organization and Chair of the Special Session; organized with Matthijs Smakman (Utrecht Uni- versity), Scarlet Schaffrath (TH Ko?ln), and Rebecca Stower (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)
2019 | International 365体育_足球比分网￥投注直播官网 "Ethical impact of robot tutors in early education"
Organization and Chair of the workshop at Paderborn University together with Scarlet Schaffrath (TH Ko?ln)
Held at Paderborn University
2024 - 2025 | Guest Editor Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Guest Editor of the Research Topic Personalized Robotics: Capturing Variability in Child–Robot Interactions in Education, Healthcare, and Daily Life in Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
Further Information
Research projects
Projekt CULSHY (2023 – ): Cross-cultural studies on shyness: Experimental studies on gesture production of school-aged children and their nonverbal communicative behavior in a child-robot interaction
PIs:
Prof. Dr. Katharina Rohlfing (UPB)
Prof. Dr. Kazuki Sekine (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
Project members:
Dr. Nils Tolksdorf
Dr. Angela Grimminger
Project merits (2018–2022): Early childhood media interaction and language learning with social robots to promote participation opportunities in the digital society
In this project, child-robot interaction is investigated from the perspectives of media pedagogy and psycholinguistics: How to design a child-oriented dialogue? Can preschoolers' language development benefit longitudinally from an interaction with a robot? What do kindergarten teachers expect from a child-robot interaction? The project addresses the need to introduce digital technology to children in order to foster equality in digital society.
PIs:
Prof. Dr. Katharina Rohlfing (UPB)
Project members:
Selected publications:
- Tolksdorf, N. F., 365体育_足球比分网￥投注直播官网bert, S., Zorn, I., Horwath, I., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2021). Ethical considerations of applying robots in kindergarten settings: Towards an approach from a macroperspective. International Journal of Social Robotics, 13(2), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-020-00622-3
- 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), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.569615
- Tolksdorf, N. F., Viertel, F. E., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2021). Do shy preschoolers interact differently when learning language with a social robot? An analysis of interactional behavior and word learning. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8(676123), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.676123
- Tolksdorf, N. F., & Mertens, U. (2020). Beyond words: Children’s multimodal responses during word learning with a robot. In K. J. Rohlfing & C. Müller-Brauers (Eds.), International perspectives on digital media and early literacy: The impact of digital devices on learning, language acquisition and social interaction (pp. 90–102). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/beyond-words-nils-tolksdorf-ulrich-mertens/e/10.4324/9780429321399-7
- Tolksdorf, N. F., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2020). Parents’ views on using social robots for language learning. 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 634–640. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN47096.2020.9223540
Research focus
Research Interests:
- Early language development, preschoolers' acquisition of words
- Multimodal turn taking
- Individual differences; shyness
- Language learning with social robots
- Social robotics
- Child oriented dialogue design