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Doing the Right Thing: Infants’ Selection of Actions to Imitate From Observed Event Sequences
- Child Development
, 2007
"... Two studies were conducted to investigate how 14- to 16-month-old infants select actions to imitate from the stream of events. In each study, an experimenter demonstrated two actions leading to an interesting effect. Aspects of the first action were manipulated and whether infants performed this act ..."
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Two studies were conducted to investigate how 14- to 16-month-old infants select actions to imitate from the stream of events. In each study, an experimenter demonstrated two actions leading to an interesting effect. Aspects of the first action were manipulated and whether infants performed this action when given the objects was observed. In both studies, infants were more likely to imitate the first action when it was physically nec-essary to generate the effect, and in Study 2 they were also more likely to imitate the action when it was socially cued. It seems that infants ’ own knowledge of space and causality as well as their sensitivity to others ’ social signals both contribute to their tendency to imitate actions. Manipulating and exploiting objects as tools is a defining characteristic of being human. Although some other species use and even make tools (Lea, 1999; Tomasello & Call, 1997), no other species is as dependent on tool-use as humans are or uses as wide a variety of tools. Implements of war and ritual, body adornments and grooming devices, artifacts for col-lecting and preparing food, and even items intended
Gravity and Solidity in Four Great Ape Species (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus): Vertical and Horizontal Variations of the Table Task
"... Three experiments modeled after infant studies were run on four great ape species (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus) to investigate their reasoning about solidity and gravity constraints. The aims were: (a) to find out if great apes are subject to gravity biased search ..."
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Three experiments modeled after infant studies were run on four great ape species (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus) to investigate their reasoning about solidity and gravity constraints. The aims were: (a) to find out if great apes are subject to gravity biased search or display sensitivity for object solidity, (b) to check for species differences, and (c) to assess if a gravity hypothesis or more parsimonious explanations best account for failures observed. Results indicate that great apes, unlike monkeys, show no reliable gravity bias, that ape species slightly differ in terms of their performance, and that the errors made are best explained by a gravity account.
On the Nature and Origin of Intuitive Theories: Learning, Physics and Psychology
, 2015
"... This thesis develops formal computational models of intuitive theories, in particular intuitive physics and intuitive psychology, which form the basis of commonsense reasoning. The overarching formal framework is that of hierarchical Bayesian models, which see the mind as having domain-specific hypo ..."
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This thesis develops formal computational models of intuitive theories, in particular intuitive physics and intuitive psychology, which form the basis of commonsense reasoning. The overarching formal framework is that of hierarchical Bayesian models, which see the mind as having domain-specific hypotheses about how the world works. The work first extends models of intuitive psychology to include higher-level social utilities, arguing against a pure ‘classifier ’ view. Second, the work extends models of intuitive physics by introducing a ontological hierarchy of physics concepts, and examining how well people can reason about novel dynamic displays. I then examine the question of learning intuitive theories in general, arguing that an algorithmic approach based on stochastic search can address several puzzles of learning, including the ‘chicken and egg ’ problem of concept learning. Finally, I argue the need for a joint theory-space for reasoning about intuitive physics and intuitive psychology, and provide such a simplified space in the form of a generative model for a novel domain
Review Article Multisensory Integration and Internal Models for Sensing Gravity Effects in Primates
"... Copyright © 2014 Francesco Lacquaniti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Gravity is crucial for spatial perceptio ..."
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Copyright © 2014 Francesco Lacquaniti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Gravity is crucial for spatial perception, postural equilibrium, and movement generation. The vestibular apparatus is the main sensory system involved in monitoring gravity. Hair cells in the vestibular maculae respond to gravitoinertial forces, but they cannot distinguish between linear accelerations and changes of head orientation relative to gravity.The brain deals with this sensory ambiguity (which can cause some lethal airplane accidents) by combining several cues with the otolith signals: angular velocity signals provided by the semicircular canals, proprioceptive signals from muscles and tendons, visceral signals related to gravity, and visual signals. In particular, vision provides both static and dynamic signals about body orientation relative to the vertical, but it poorly discriminates arbitrary accelerations of moving objects. However, we are able to visually detect the specific acceleration of gravity since early infancy. This ability depends on the fact that gravity effects are stored in brain regions which integrate visual, vestibular, and neck proprioceptive signals and combine this information with an internal model of gravity effects. 1.
