I am doing research in the Psychological Studies in Education program at Stanford University.
My advisors are Daniel Schwartz, Roy Pea , Brigid Barron
At Stanford, I am part of the AAA Lab AAA Lab led by Prof. Daniel Schwartz.
Other projects that are affiliated with our lab areMedia X , Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning SCIL , Learning in Informal and Formal Environments NSF LIFE Center Project.


I have also completed my Doctoral program at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University.
My thesis advisors and committee members were Hideyuki Tokuda, Jun Murai, Makoto Arisawa, Keigo Okonogi.
Other projects that are affiliated with our Tokuda-Murai lab areWIDE Project , Network Robot Forum .

My research interest is in...
APPLIED: Designing information technology/robots assisted learning tools for children and adults that influence behavior (learning, prevention, coping skills)
BASIC: Investigating young children's attribution and conceptual understanding of Agency, Intelligence, Biology, Health using cognitive artifacts.

Resume

Research Projects and Groups
STANFORD University
Primary Research:
Perception of Intelligence in Robotic Toys (Okita)
Affect and Animacy in Robotic Toys (Okita)
Information Transfer Between Real and Virtual Environments (Okita)
Children's Robot Assisted Therapy Project (Okita)
Secondary Research:
Teachable Agents (Schwartz)
Imagery Project (Schwartz)
Children with Chronic Illness Re-entry into School (Children's Health Council-Hoffman)
Pet Therapy Project (LPCH)
Young Children and New Technologies Study (Perez-Granados)

KEIO University
Jun Murai Lab
Hideyuki Tokuda Lab
Keio Media Space Family Project

Journal Publications:
1. Okita, Y.S., Tokuda, H. (Feb. 2001).  A Virtual Therapeutic Environment with User Projective Agents,CyberPsychology and Behavior, 4(5), Mary Ann Liebert Inc.

2. Okita, Y.S. (Oct. 2004).  Effects of Age in associating virtual and embodied toys,CyberPsychology and Behavior, In print Vol. 7, Mary Ann Liebert Inc.

Conferences: Paper, Poster,Workshops
2005
Okita, S., Schwartz, D., Shibata, T., Nakamura, O., Tokuda, H.(2005) Exploring Young Children's Attributions through Entertainment Robots. 14th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), Nashville, TN (August 13-15)

2004
Okita, S., (2004) Effects of age on associating virtual and embodied toys. American Educational Research Association (AERA ) Conference, San Diego CA (April 12-16)

Okita, S., (2004). Children's Accuracy and Transfer Across Different Context Environments, International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) Santa Monica CA (June 22-26)

1998
Okita, Y.S., Tokuda, H. (1998). Cyber Therapy Model, In Proceedings of the Third Multimedia Technology and Applications Conference, MTAC 1998. IEEE. Anaheim, CA.0-7803-9915-3/98 Copyright 1998 IEEE

Okita, Y.S., Tokuda, H. (1998). Psychotherapy With Virtual Pet Agents, In the Proceedings of the 3rd Asia Pacific Computer Human Interaction, APCHI 1998. IEEE. Shonan Village Center, Japan.0-8186-8347-3/98 Copyright 1998 IEEE.

Okita, Y.S., Tokuda, H. (1998). The PSY-AAAT Prototype System, In Proceedings IPSJ National Conference, March, 1998.

Other Publications:
1. Okita, Y.S., Psychotherapy With Virtual Pet Agents-Intelligent Cooperative Work Supporting Environment-Keio Media Space Family Selected Technical Reports, Keio Univ. Shonan Fujisawa Gattkai Press,1998.

2. Okita, Y. S., The Next Generation Personalized E-Newspaper Using Agents--The Electronic Newspaper Prototype No.2.--, Keio Univ. Shonan Fujisawa Gattkai Press, 1997.

3. Okita, Y.S., The Electronic Newspaper Prototype, Keio Univ. Shonan Fujisawa Gattkai Press, 1996.