Sabancı Mind, Language, & Technology Lab

We had the first lab meeting of 2025-2026 Spring Semester with everyone! 🎉

🌟 We have some new RAs who joined us this semester. We welcome them and hope everyone will have a great semester.

Last month, our research assistant and new lab manager Ekin Su Gümüş gave the oral presentation "What We See When We Know: The Impact of AI Disclosure on Attention and Human-likeness Perception in HRI" in the technical session "Robot Pose Control and Human-Robot Interaction" at the 12th International Conference for Automation, Robotics and Applications (ICARA) held in Istanbul 🤖

The study focused on large language model (LLM) integrated human-robot interaction, exploring how LLM awareness may influence user expectations and attentiveness in social robots 👥 Ekin and her teammates, Nur Efşan Delikkaya, Ahsen Öztürk, and Eda Pekol, collected data with the supervision of Prof. Kursat Cagiltay and Dr. Junko Kanero. The presentation was awarded with the Best Presentation Certificate! Well done, Ekin 👏🏻

🥳JOIN OUR TEAM 📣

▪️Job Overview▪️
Mind, Language, & Technology Lab (MLT Lab) at Sabancı University is seeking a new Lab Manager! We are looking for a motivated undergraduate at Sabancı to help us with daily operations. The Lab Manager will receive a monthly salary matching the TÜBİTAK scholarship (currently 6000 TL) and will be eligible for research experience and other benefits (e.g., recommendation letters). There may also be opportunities to develop independent projects, attend conferences, and co-author manuscripts.

▪️Qualifications▪️
✅ Currently enrolled at Sabancı University as an undergraduate student
✅Able to work at least 8 hours a week
✅Can stay in the position at least for a semester, preferably for two semesters
✅Advanced communication skills in English, preferably in Turkish too

▪️Responsibilities▪️
🔹Managing the lab website and social media accounts
🔹Maintaining lab equipment and supplies
🔹Recruiting participants and managing the participant database
🔹Overseeing study scheduling
🔹Assisting research activities (e.g., data collection)
🔹Organizing lab meetings and events
🔹Preparing and managing ethics protocols
🔹Recruiting new research assistants
🔹Other duties may also be assigned

▪️How to apply▪️
Please contact us ([email protected]) by February 19, 2026. The applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

The whole project started years ago, when Çiğdem Bağcı Hoca ( ) and Junko Hoca had a casual chat about using the intergroup contact theory to decipher interactions between a person and a robot (aka human-robot interaction or HRI) 🤖

​The intergroup contact theory is a classic theory in social psychology suggesting that a positive yet brief interaction between members of different social groups can result in improved attitudes not only toward the individuals involved in the interaction but also toward the entire social groups and potentially beyond. The project was funded by TÜBİTAK for 3 years, and many many students contributed to the work 🤝

This newly published piece reports our first two experiments in the project that tested the feasibility of what we dubbed "human-robot (fast) friendship (HRF) procedure." Our wonderful graduate student co-authors Selen Akay and Ayşe Doğan played leading roles in these experiments. As you can find in the acknowledgement section of the article, we would also like to thank Berfin Acar, İrem Kuyucu, Ayşenur Didem Yılmaz, Ahmad Alhasan, Begüm Kayaalp, Berkay Arslan, Ceren Boynuk, Duru İmamoğlu, Ece Karaosmanoğlu, Elif Gödüş, Devrim Öztürk, Elif Nur Keskinkılıç, Eren Akbaba, Eren Çavuş, Ezgi Bostancı, Fatma İlayda Ünal, Gülce Fidan, Lâra Mercan Şahin, Nazlı Şevval Tezel, Yaren Zengin, and Zeynep Zontur for their valuable contributions in participant recruitment and data collection. Thank you all! ✨

​We submitted this work for publication back in July, 2023, and it was surprising that it took 2.5 years for the paper to be published ⏳Nevertheless, we are very happy that the article is finally out and cannot wait to showcase more findings from the project.
​Please stay tuned! 🚀

Bagci, S. C., Akay, S., Dogan, A., & Kanero, J. (2026). ‘Human-Robot (Fast) Friendship’ as a Tool to Improve Attitudes Towards Robots and Beyond. International Journal of Social Robotics, 18(25). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-026-01363-5

⏳ One month left to submit!

Join us in beautiful Kyoto, Japan ⛩️✨🇯🇵 for the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL)

📅 15–18 September 2026
🔗 https://attend.ieee.org/icdl-2026/

We welcome submissions that advance our understanding of how intelligent systems develop and learn, both natural and artificial. ICDL brings together researchers from developmental science, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, robotics, and AI to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on embodied, cognitive, and lifelong learning.

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📌 Important Deadlines (23:59 AoE)

🗓 March 13, 2026
• Full Papers (6 pages; up to +2 pages with fee)
• Workshop & Tutorial Proposals

🗓 April 1, 2026
• Journal Presentations

🗓 June 12, 2026
• Late-Breaking Results (1–2 pages)

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🎤 Keynote Speakers
• Yukiyasu Kamitani (Kyoto University, Japan)
• Victoria Leong (NTU, Singapore)
• Georg Martius (MPI-IS / University of Tübingen, Germany)
• Tim Verbelen (VERSES, USA)
✨ More speakers will be announced soon!

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👩‍💼 Organizing Team
General Chair: Tadahiro Taniguchi
Program Chair: Shingo Murata
Program Co-Chairs: Tatsuya Daikoku, Pablo Lanillos, Junko Kanero, Alejandra Ciria, Namiko Saito

We look forward to seeing you in Kyoto! 🌸

Helin reached out to Junko Hoca back in 2021 to seek research opportunities, which were quite limited at the time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Helin and Junko Hoca designed an online study examining the effects of accent and nationality on hiring decisions. This project was partly motivated by Junko Hoca’s frustration at seeing several of her talented English teacher friends being mistreated in local schools simply because they did not come from stereotypical English-speaking countries such as the US. 💼🌍

The study was fully designed and implemented, and data were successfully collected; however, Helin and Junko Hoca were unable to finalize the manuscript. A few years later, İrem Kuyucu and Pelin Öztürk joined the project, bringing with them a strong fascination with language and a keen motivation to advance the project. As each of project members progressed through different stages of our careers, like completing master’s theses and relocating to other countries, finalizing the manuscript proved challenging. Nevertheless, we are delighted that the work has finally been completed and published! 🎉📖

We would also like to thank friends of Helin and Junko who generously provided the recordings, and Arzu Wasti Hoca for her guidance in publishing the work. 🌸🙏

🔗 Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.70044

Article: Kuyucu, İ., Erden, H., Öztürk, T. P., & Kanero, J. (2026). To Hire or Not to Hire: The Influence of Accents on Hiring Decisions. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 34(1), e70044. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.70044.

✨ MLT Lab’ı Tanıyalım! ✨

Ekin, Sabancı Üniversitesi’nde Bilgisayar Bilimi ve Mühendisliği ile Psikoloji Çift Ana Dal programı öğrencisidir. 🎓

MLT laboratuvarında yaklaşık 2 yıldır İnsan-Bilgisayar/Robot Etkileşimi üzerine projelerde çalışıyor. 🤖🧪

Akademik serüveninin devamında insanların gelişmekte olan teknolojilerle olan etkileşimlerini anlama üzerine çalışıp, insanı merkeze alan etik yapay zeka teknolojilerinin oluşturulmasında rol almak istiyor. 🌐⚖️

Boş zaman buldukça çizim gibi yaratıcı aktiviteleri, kitap okumayı ve arkadaşlarıyla masaüstü rol yapma veya video oyunları oynamayı seviyor. 🎨📚🎮

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✨ Meet MLT Lab! ✨

Ekin is a Computer Science and Engineering and Psychology double major program student at Sabancı University. 🎓

They have been contributing to Human-Computer/Robot Interaction studies in the MLT laboratory for almost 2 years. 🤖🧪

They want to continue their academic adventure by understanding humans’ interactions with developing technologies and contribute to the creation of human-centered ethical artificial intelligent technologies. 🌐⚖️

When they find time, they like doing creative activities such as drawing, reading, and playing tabletop RPG or video games with friends. 🎨📚🎮

🌎 Your Culture Can Affect Your Personal Memories! 👀

📝 Post by: Simge Merve Vit, Saghar Yeganehparast, and Dr. Junko Kanero

[ENG] Pictures from Junko Hoca's guest talk "At the crossroads of culture and cognition: From cross-cultural, cross-linguistic, and cross-generational perspectives" at the University of Tokyo 🌸

This talk featured various language projects from MLT Lab as well as the newly collected data from the ongoing TÜBİTAK project (Project AgeWISE) 🥳

Shout out to Dr. Michiko Asano for hosting the event (and for 15 years of mentorship!) and the wonderful collaborators involved in the work 👏

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[TR] Junko hocamızın Tokyo Üniversitesinde gerçekleştirdiği “Kültür ve bilişin kesişiminde: kültürlerarası, dillerarası ve kuşaklararası perspektiflerden” başlıklı konuşmadan kareler 🌸

Konuşmada MLT Lab’in çeşitli dil projelerinin yanı sıra TÜBİTAK destekli AgeWISE projesi kapsamında yeni toplanan veriler de paylaşıldı 🥳

Etkinliğe ev sahipliği yaptığı ve 15 yıllık mentörlüğü için Dr. Michiko Asano’ya, ayrıca çalışmaya katkı sunan tüm harika işbirlikçilere teşekkürler 👏

✨ MLT Lab’ı Tanıyalım! ✨

Elif, Sabancı Üniversitesi Psikoloji bölümü son sınıf öğrencisi. 🎓 Klinik psikoloji alanına ilgi duyuyor ve bu alanda ilerlemeyi hedefliyor.

Boş zamanlarında kitap okumayı, seramik yapmayı ve hayvanlarla ilgilenmeyi seviyor. 📚🎨🐾

Ayrıca yeni diller öğrenmekten ve yeni yerler keşfetmekten keyif alıyor. 🗺️✈️

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✨ Meet MLT Lab! ✨

Elif is a senior Psychology student at Sabancı University. 🎓 She is interested in clinical psychology and aims to pursue a career in this field.

In her free time, she enjoys reading, making ceramics, and spending time with animals. 📚🎨🐾

She also loves learning new languages and exploring new places. 🗺️✈️

✨ MLT Lab’ı Tanıyalım! ✨

Bilkent Üniversitesi’nde psikoloji lisans eğitimimi tamamladıktan sonra, şimdi Sabancı Psikoloji ailesine yüksek lisans öğrencisi olarak katılacağım çok heyecan verici bir yolculuğa başlıyorum. 🎓

Her zaman “Neden farkındayız?” ve “Bilinç aslında nedir?” gibi büyük sorular beni büyülemiş ve psikolojiye olan tutkumun temelini oluşturmuştur. 💭

Araştırmalarımda özellikle bilinç, dil ve metakognisyon ile ilgileniyor; zihnin sadece ne ve nasıl olduğuna değil, aynı zamanda neden olduğuna da odaklanmaktan keyif alıyorum. 🧠

Bu konulara, üst düzey bilişi anlamak için davranışsal ve kuramsal yaklaşımları birleştiren bilişsel ve sinirbilimsel bakış açılarıyla yaklaşmayı seviyorum. 🔬

Gelecekte psikoloji, sinirbilim ve felsefenin kesişiminde çalışmayı umuyorum. 🌌

Boş zamanlarımda kitap okumaktan 📚, resim yapmaktan 🎨 ve şarkı söylemekten 🎶 keyif alıyorum.

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✨ Meet MLT Lab! ✨

After completing my bachelor's degree in psychology from Bilkent University, I will now embark on a very exciting journey which is being a member of Sabanci Psychology as a graduate student. 🎓

I have always been fascinated by big questions, such as why we are aware and what consciousness really is, which drove my passion for psychology. 💭

In my research, I am especially interested in consciousness, language, and metacognition, and I enjoy exploring not just the what and how of the mind, but also the why. 🧠

I like approaching these topics from both cognitive and neuroscientific perspectives that combine behavioral and theoretical approaches to understand higher-level cognition. 🔬

Looking ahead, I hope to work at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. 🌌

In my free time, I enjoy reading books 📖, painting 🎨, and singing 🎤.