Inferring the goals of a nonhuman agent

Johnson, Susan C.; Booth, Amy E.; O’Hearn, Kirsten

doi:10.1016/s0885-2014(01)00043-0

Cited by 171 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…One study involved showing 18-month-old infants an unsuccessful act (Meltzoff, 1995; for related work see also Carpenter, Akhtar, & Tomasello, 1998;Johnson, Booth, & O'Hearn, 2001). For example, the adult 'accidentally' under-or overshot his target, or he tried to pull apart a dumbbell-shaped object but his hand slipped several times from the ends as he pulled outwards.…”

Section: Empiricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A topic of interest is the criteria and cues infants use for inferring unseen goals and intentions and appropriating them to guide their own subsequent action. The mechanical pincers used in Meltzoff (1995, Exp. 2) establish a lower boundary for infants that is not sufficient; using the same paradigm, Johnson et al, 2001 reported success when infants were presented with an interactive, nonhuman puppet with eyes and hands. I am currently exploring whether mechanical devices such as social robots can be treated as 'like me' based on bodily structure and/ or the type of behavior they exhibit, prompting action imitation by the infant.…”

Section: Implications For Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent

2007

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Infant imitation demonstrates that the perception and production of human action are closely linked by a 'supramodal' representation of action. This action representation unites observation and execution into a common framework, and it has far-reaching implications for the development of social cognition. It allows infants to see the behaviors of others as commensurate with their ownas 'like me.' Based on the 'like me' perception of others, social encounters are interpretable and informative. Infants can use themselves as a framework for understanding others and can learn about the possibilities and consequences of their own potential acts by observing the behavior of others. Through social interaction with other intentional agents who are viewed as 'like me,' infants develop a richer social cognition. This paper explores the early manifestations and cascading developmental effects of the 'like me' conception.

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Section: Empiricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent

2007

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“…Individuals of both species also seem to switch between different such behaviors depending on perceived cues about the world [54,62]. These cues include, for example, the inferred purpose of the observed actions [13,14,67] even when the action fails [67,91,145]. Other social learning mechanisms are analyzed in [154] under the more general designation of social influence/learning.…”

Section: Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, social cues were found important in promoting imitation in infants [21,91]. Several other studies address the general problem of understanding the process of inferring the goal/intention behind a demonstration [14,67,91]. Most such studies also address the related problem of understanding the process of perceiving unfulfilled intentions.…”

Section: Goal Inference From Demonstrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abstraction Levels for Robotic Imitation: Overview and Computational Approaches

Lopes

Melo

Montesano

et al. 2010

Studies in Computational Intelligence

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This chapter reviews several approaches to the problem of learning by imitation in robotics. We start by describing several cognitive processes identified in the literature as necessary for imitation. We then proceed by surveying different approaches to this problem, placing particular emphasys on methods whereby an agent first learns about its own body dynamics by means of self-exploration and then uses this knowledge about its own body to recognize the actions being performed by other agents. This general approach is related to the motor theory of perception, particularly to the mirror neurons found in primates. We distinguish three fundamental classes of methods, corresponding to three abstraction levels at which imitation can be addressed. As such, the methods surveyed herein exhibit behaviors that range from raw sensory-motor trajectory matching to high-level abstract task replication. We also discuss the impact that knowledge about the world and/or the demonstrator can have on the particular behaviors exhibited.

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“…While these systems show some quantitative refinement with age (e.g., becoming more sensitive), the qualitative properties of the systems appear to remain constant over development, and their unique 'signatures' can be found in adults as well as infants. Similar core systems for reasoning about physical objects [12,16] and agency and intentionality [17][18][19] are present in early infancy, to name just the best documented cases.…”

Section: Cognitive Development As a Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Origins: Why Cognitive Development is Central to a Mature Understanding of Social Cognition

Dunham

Olson²

2008

TOPSYJ

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Abstract:The overwhelming majority of work in social cognition has focused on adults, what can be called end-state social cognition. We argue that development (and especially cognitive development) can provide a theoretical and methodological tool to advance the study of social cognition. Developmental psychology can offer unique insight into the origin of end-state processes, providing insight into how they develop from simpler components and thus serving as constraints to theoretical models of end-state social cognition. We provide examples of 1) areas where existing developmental research offers potential insight into our understanding of adult processes, 2) areas where new developmental research can directly address theoretical debates in social cognition, and 3) a case study of one successful, extant bridge between development and social cognition. Finally, we comment more generally on both the promise and potential pitfalls of an integrated social-developmental approach to social cognition.

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Inferring the goals of a nonhuman agent

Cited by 171 publications

References 36 publications

The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent

The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent

Abstraction Levels for Robotic Imitation: Overview and Computational Approaches

The Importance of Origins: Why Cognitive Development is Central to a Mature Understanding of Social Cognition

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