Rachel L. Severson is a doctoral candidate in Developmental Psychology at the University of Washington. She is interested in children's animistic and moral conceptions of "other", whether the other is natural (e.g., animate and inanimate nature) or computational (e.g., personified robots). Specifically her research investigates: (a) whether and how children understand natural and computational others as alive, in terms of biological properties, psychological states, and sociality; (b) whether and how children extend moral regard to natural and computational others, in terms of concern for their physical and psychological wellbeing, rights, and just treatment; and (c) if children do conceive of natural and computational others in animistic and moralistic ways, how do we know that they are not just pretending. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Current Directions in Psychological Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Journal of Environmental Psychology, and Interaction Studies: Social Behavior and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems.