Alina Larson

Alina Larson is a researcher specializing in human-computer interaction, psycholinguistics, and cognitive psychology. She recently worked at Heriot-Watt University on human-robot dialogue projects at the National Robotarium, collaborating with Matthew Aylett and engineers to implement more naturalistic human-robot conversation with focus on backchannels and turn-taking speed.

Dr. Larson completed her doctorate in Cognitive Psychology with a focus on Psycholinguistics from UC Santa Cruz in Spring 2019. Her doctoral research examined first impressions in human-computer interaction, specifically investigating how visual and rhythmic expression affects personality judgments of both machine and human agents. She received her bachelor's degree from Lewis and Clark College in Spring 2012 with a double major in Psychology and Foreign Languages (Russian and French).

Her research interests span human-robot interaction, sarcasm comprehension, collaborative synchrony, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying social perception. Dr. Larson's work bridges cognitive psychology with practical applications in artificial intelligence and human-computer interfaces, with numerous publications exploring how humans perceive and interact with machine agents. Her research demonstrates how contextual framing significantly influences how machine agents are perceived beyond just speech content.

Outside academia, Dr. Larson is active in the arts and community. She enjoys playing music, particularly uilleann pipes, and has dabbled in tune-writing. She maintains an artwork portfolio and has been involved with community dance organizations including East Bay Waltz (where she helps prepare and run dances, DJs, designs logos, and takes photos) and Ceili Without Ceilings (where she helps organize events and teach dances). As a child, she advocated for the rebuilding of Cragmont School alongside her mother in Berkeley, CA.

Currently, Dr. Larson works as a Social Media Marketing Specialist and Content Creator with Lark in the Morning, managing brand presence on social media sites and handling various creative tasks including newsletters, website maintenance, and photography.