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90
The development of embodied cognition: Six lessons from babies
- Artificial Life
, 2005
"... Abstract. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an agent with an environment and as a result of sensorimotor activity. In this paper we offer six lessons for developing embodied intelligent agents suggested by research in developmental psychology. We a ..."
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Cited by 55 (9 self)
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Abstract. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an agent with an environment and as a result of sensorimotor activity. In this paper we offer six lessons for developing embodied intelligent agents suggested by research in developmental psychology. We argue that starting as a baby grounded in a physical, social and linguistic world is crucial to the development of the flexible and inventive intelligence that characterizes humankind.
Connectionist models of development
, 2003
"... How have connectionist models informed the study of development? This paper considers three contributions from specific models. First, connectionist models have proven useful for exploring nonlinear dynamics and emergent properties, and their role in nonlinear developmental trajectories, critical pe ..."
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Cited by 47 (5 self)
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How have connectionist models informed the study of development? This paper considers three contributions from specific models. First, connectionist models have proven useful for exploring nonlinear dynamics and emergent properties, and their role in nonlinear developmental trajectories, critical periods and developmental disorders. Second, connectionist models have informed the study of the representations that lead to behavioral dissociations. Third, connectionist models have provided insight into neural mechanisms, and why different brain regions are specialized for different functions. Connectionist and dynamic systems approaches to development have differed, with connectionist approaches focused on learning processes and representations in cognitive tasks, and dynamic systems approaches focused on mathematical characterizations of physical elements of the system and their interactions with the environment. The two approaches also share much in common, such as their emphasis on continuous, nonlinear processes and their broad application to a range of behaviors.
Testing the dynamic field theory: Working memory for locations becomes more spatially precise over development
- CHILD DEVELOPMENT
, 2003
"... The dynamic field theory predicts that biases toward remembered locations depend on the separation between targets, and the spatial precision of interactions in working memory that become enhanced over development. This was tested by varying the separation between A and B locations in a sandbox. Chi ..."
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Cited by 45 (14 self)
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The dynamic field theory predicts that biases toward remembered locations depend on the separation between targets, and the spatial precision of interactions in working memory that become enhanced over development. This was tested by varying the separation between A and B locations in a sandbox. Children searched for an object 6 times at an A location, followed by 3 trials at a B location. Two- and 4-year-olds’, but not 6-year-olds’, responses were biased toward A when A and B were 9-in. and 6-in. apart. When A and B were separated by 2 in., however, 4- and 6-year-olds’ responses were biased toward A. Thus, the separation at which responses were biased toward A decreased across age groups, supporting the predictions of the theory.
Using dynamic field theory to rethink infant habituation.
- Psychological Review,
, 2006
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Connectionism and dynamic systems: are they really different?
, 2003
"... We propose that connectionism and dynamic systems theory are strong contenders for a general theory of development that holds true whatever the content domain. We illustrate, through our own career narratives, the origins of these theories in motor and language development. We situate connectionism ..."
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Cited by 28 (0 self)
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We propose that connectionism and dynamic systems theory are strong contenders for a general theory of development that holds true whatever the content domain. We illustrate, through our own career narratives, the origins of these theories in motor and language development. We situate connectionism and dynamic systems among other classic and contemporary theories and conclude that, although there are meaningful differences, these differences pale in relation to the shared assumptions about the fundamental processes and mechanisms of change.
Cognition as a dynamic system: Principles from embodiment
- Developmental Review
, 2005
"... Abstract Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent result ..."
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Cited by 26 (2 self)
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Abstract Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent results concerning the embodiment of cognition to argue for a dynamic systems approach. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an organism with an environment and as a result of sensory-motor activity. The continual coupling of cognition to the world through the body both adapts cognition to the idiosyncrasies of the here and now, makes it relevant, and provides the mechanism for developmental change. Ó 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dynamic systems; Cognition; Concepts; Development The idea of emergence-the temporary but coherent coming into existence of new forms through ongoing intrinsic processes-is fundamental to the idea of dynamic systems. Complex systems composed of very many individual elements embedded within, and open to, a complex environment can exhibit coherent behavior: the parts are coordinated without an executive agent, plan, or program. Coherence is generated solely in the relationships between the components and the constraints and opportunities offered by the environment. This self-organization means that no single element has causal priority. When such complex systems self-organize, they are characterized by the relative stability 0273-2297/$ -see front matter Ó
Developmental changes in the relative weighting of geometric and experience-dependent location cues
- Journal of Cognition and Development
, 2003
"... sponses are biased toward spatial prototypes, and these biases increase under condi-tions of uncertainty. Consistent with the model, 6- and 11-year-olds ’ biases toward prototypes increased across delays, especially for locations far from prototypes. Re-sponse biases also varied systematically with ..."
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Cited by 24 (15 self)
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sponses are biased toward spatial prototypes, and these biases increase under condi-tions of uncertainty. Consistent with the model, 6- and 11-year-olds ’ biases toward prototypes increased across delays, especially for locations far from prototypes. Re-sponse biases also varied systematically with target frequency; however, responses were not always biased toward prototypes. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds ’ responses to an infrequent target near the category boundary were biased toward a frequent tar-get in an adjacent category. In Experiment 2, biases toward a frequent target were evi-dent near prototypes. Both categorical information and children’s experience with lo-cations influence location estimates. Moreover, children’s selective weighting of competing location cues changes between 6 and 11 years. Spatial cognition has played a central role in developmental psychology since Piaget’s early explorations of children’s understanding of space (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956; Piaget, Inhelder, & Szeminska, 1960). Despite this long history of research, the field lacks a unifying theory of the development of spatial skills. Re-cently, Newcombe, Huttenlocher, and colleagues (Newcombe & Huttenlocher, 2000; Newcombe, Huttenlocher, Drummey, & Wiley, 1998) proposed a frame-work that may unify decades of spatial memory research. According to their ac-count, children encode locations using four coding systems: response learning, dead reckoning, cue learning, and place learning. The response-learning and dead-reckoning systems encode locations in relation to the self. In contrast, the cue-learning and place-learning systems encode locations relative to landmarks in
Generalizing the dynamic field theory of the A-not-B error beyond infancy: Three-year-olds’ delay- and experience-dependent location memory biases
- Child Development
, 2002
"... Thelen and colleagues recently proposed a dynamic field theory (DFT) to capture the general processes that give rise to infants ’ performance in the Piagetian A-not-B task. According to this theory, the same general processes should operate in noncanonical A-not-B-type tasks with children older than ..."
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Cited by 23 (8 self)
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Thelen and colleagues recently proposed a dynamic field theory (DFT) to capture the general processes that give rise to infants ’ performance in the Piagetian A-not-B task. According to this theory, the same general processes should operate in noncanonical A-not-B-type tasks with children older than 12 months. Three predictions of the DFT were tested by examining 3-year-olds ’ location memory errors in a task with a homogeneous task space. Children pointed to remembered locations after delays of 0 s to 10 s. The spatial layout of the possible targets and the frequency with which children moved to each target was varied. As predicted by the DFT, children’s responses showed a continuous spatial drift during delays toward a longer term memory of previously moved-to locations. Furthermore, these delay-dependent effects were reduced when children moved to an “A ” location on successive trials, and were magnified on the first trial to a nearby “B ” location. Thus, the DFT generalized to capture the performance of 3-year-old children in a new task. In contrast to predictions of the DFT, however, 3-year-olds ’ responses were also biased toward the midline of the task space—an effect predicted by the category adjustment (CA) model. These data suggest that young children’s spatial memory responses are affected by delay- and experience-dependent processes as well as the geometric structure of the task space. Consequently, two current models of spatial memory—the DFT and the CA model—provide incomplete accounts of children’s location memory abilities.
IMITATION IN INFANCY: THE WEALTH OF THE STIMULUS
"... Imitation requires the imitator to solve the correspondence problem- to translate visual information from modelled action into matching motor output. It has been widely accepted for some 30 years that the correspondence problem is solved by a specialised, innate cognitive mechanism. This is the conc ..."
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Cited by 18 (4 self)
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Imitation requires the imitator to solve the correspondence problem- to translate visual information from modelled action into matching motor output. It has been widely accepted for some 30 years that the correspondence problem is solved by a specialised, innate cognitive mechanism. This is the conclusion of a poverty of the stimulus argument, realised in the active intermodal matching model of imitation, which assumes that human neonates can imitate a range of body movements. An alternative, wealth of the stimulus argument, embodied in the associative sequence learning model of imitation, proposes that the correspondence problem is solved by sensorimotor learning, and that the experience necessary for this kind of learning is provided by the sociocultural environment during human development. In a detailed and wide-ranging review of research on imitation and imitation-relevant behavior in infancy and beyond, we find substantially more evidence in favour of the wealth argument than of the poverty argument.
Toward a formal theory of flexible spatial behavior: Geometric category biases generalize across pointing and verbal response types
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
, 2006
"... Three experiments tested whether geometric biases—biases away from perceived reference axes— reported in spatial recall tasks with pointing responses generalized to a recognition task that required a verbal response. Seven-year-olds and adults remembered the location of a dot within a rectangle and ..."
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Cited by 17 (6 self)
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Three experiments tested whether geometric biases—biases away from perceived reference axes— reported in spatial recall tasks with pointing responses generalized to a recognition task that required a verbal response. Seven-year-olds and adults remembered the location of a dot within a rectangle and then either reproduced its location or verbally selected a matching choice dot from a set of colored options. Results demonstrated that geometric biases generalized to verbal responses; however, the spatial span of the choice set influenced performance as well. These data suggest that the same spatial memory process gives rise to both response types in this task. Simulations of a dynamic field model buttress this claim. More generally, these results challenge accounts that posit separate spatial systems for motor and verbal responses.
