This position paper proposes that the study of embodied cognitive agents, such as humanoid robots, can advance our understanding of the cognitive development of complex sensorimotor, linguistic and social learning skills. This in turn will benefit the design of cognitive robots capable of learning to handle and manipulate objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing internal, environmental, and social conditions. Four key areas of research challenges are discussed, specifically for the issues related to the understanding of: (i) how agents learn and represent compositional actions; (ii) how agents learn and represent compositional lexicons; (iii) the dynamics of social interaction and learning; and (iv) how compositional action and language representations are integrated to bootstrap the cognitive system. The review of specific issues and progress in these areas is then translated into a practical roadmap based on a series of milestones. These milestones provide a possible set of cognitive robotics goals and test-scenarios, thus acting as a research roadmap for future work on cognitive developmental robotics.

This paper presents results of a novel study on interaction kinesics where 18 children interacted with a humanoid child-sized robot called KASPAR. Based on findings in psychology and social sciences we propose the temporal behaviour matching hypothesis which predicts that children will adapt to and match the robot’s temporal behaviour. Each child took part in six experimental trials involving two games in which the dynamics of interactions played a key part: a body expression imitation game, where the robot imitated expressions demonstrated by the children, and a drumming game where the robot mirrored the children’s drumming. In both games KASPAR responded either with or without a delay. Additionally, in the drumming game, KASPAR responded with or without exhibiting facial/gestural expressions. Individual case studies as well as statistical analysis of the complete sample are presented. Results show that a delay of the robot’s drumming response lead to larger pauses (with and without robot nonverbal gestural expressions) and longer drumming durations (with nonverbal gestural expressions only). In the imitation game, the robot’s delay lead to longer imitation eliciting behaviour with longer pauses for the children, but systematic individual differences are observed in regards to the effects on the children’s pauses. Results are generally consistent with the temporal behaviour matching hypothesis, i.e. children adapted the timing of their behaviour, e.g. by mirroring to the robot’s temporal behaviour.

ward, the environment has a plasticity which alters the whole ethical aspect of evolution." (A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, 1925) Introduction and Summary I give the OED definition of a robot to emphasise that it is the lack of volition that distinguishes and robotic `worker', which by this criterion is a mere tool. I reproduce a favourite quotation from Whitehead for the clever and illuminating way it distinguished between abstractions, `products of logical discernment', and organisms that have a special coherence and `organisation', out of which properties `emerge' that are both adaptable and creative. I do not accept that simulation of the appearances or the motions and effects of life, however intricate and ingenious, is a making of life. Organisms are complex dynamic systems (CDSs) of a strange kind, always active within envelopes that limit and constrain what emerges, and that separate and aggregate sub-CDSs in intricate hierarchies, in such a way that what `em

What happens when young children play with a virtual musician? The relationships between children and new technologies is a relevant topic in the field of music education (Webster 2002; Folkestad et al. 1998; Bamberger 2003) as well as in the field of psychological sciences (Turkle 1996, De Kerckhove 1991, Kenway, J. & Bullen 2004). However, only a few studies have considered the "nature " of the interaction between children and musical machine. A research project is carrying out dealing with the interaction between children and the Continuator, an innovative musical system elaborated at the SONY-Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, able to learn and produce music in the same style as the human playing the keyboard, like in a sound mirror (Pachet 2003). The results of the experiments carried out with children to 3-5 year old have shown that the Continuator, or other similar interactive reflective systems (IRMS), is able to develop interesting child/machine interaction and creative musical process in young 1

In this paper, we argue that music cognition involves the use of acoustic and auditory codes to evoke a variety of conscious experiences. The variety of domains that are encompassed by music is so diverse that it is unclear whether a single domain of structure or experience is defining. Music is best understood as a form of communication in which formal codes (acoustic patterns and their auditory representations) are employed to elicit a variety of conscious experiences. After proposing our theoretical perspective we offer three prominent examples of conscious experiences elicited by the code of music: the recognition of structure itself, affect, and the experience of motion.

Musical sounds and the body are interdependently linked in music performance. The key to musical expression lies in the way the body conducts music over time. In this study, General Tau Theory (Lee, 2005) was used as a theoretical framework to explore the head movements made by a classical guitarist during two performances. The musician’s head movements were analysed in conjunction with sound intensity and temporal features of the music. Differences in expression between the performances were established by listeners ’ ratings of audio recordings. Tau-G guided head movements were not found to be related to intensity glides of individual notes, and the tau-coupling constant (k) did not vary between expressively different performances. Significant differences between the two performances in tau-guided head movement timing and musical tempo characteristics suggest that the body’s role in musical expression lies in expressive timing. However, limitations in this study prevent firm conclusions being drawn from these results. Ways of eliminating these defects are discussed and future directions for the application of Tau Theory to body movement in music are identified. "The material of music is sound and bodily movement" – Aristides Quintilianus 1 “Every musical manifestation should rest on a joint physical and intellectual basis, demonstrating the inseparability of body from soul.”

This paper is a position paper that speculates about a possible connection between bullying behaviour, empathy and imitation. The primary aim of our work is to provide a clearer understanding of bullying behaviour, by focusing on cognitive and emotional states that might cause bullies to show anti-social behaviour. A review of relevant research about bullying behaviour is presented followed by a brief discussion of empathy and imitation. Finally, we try to bring together these different lines of research and present the hypothesis that bullies possess well developed automatic as well as cognitive empathy, and that bullying behaviour is caused by an overemphasis of goal-directed processes of controlled empathy that work towards nonempathy. We conclude by speculating on a possible role of imitation in bullying intervention programmes.

In this paper we will present a study carried out at the University of Bologna about young children working with a particular interactive system, the Continuator, created at the Sony-Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. We will describe the setting in which the observation took place and offer an analysis of two case-studies. We will show videos (7 minutes) and photos to illustrate some examples of interaction between children and the Continuator.

flow machine

Without touch, without seeing.