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Cognitive Systems Workshop: Luxembourg, 20th March 2006
“Cognitive Systems Models &
Paradigms: Key issues for FP7”
Sajit Rao
CSAIL, MIT
The Developmental Paradigm
• Cognitive Development is nature’s way of managing complexity
• Development is largely Unsupervised: What babies know is
overwhelmingly acquired through self learning & experimenting
on the world, rather than detailed instruction by a teacher”
We must build systems that cannot but help developing
(1) Representational
Substrate
(2) Developmental
Rules
3 Key Issues in Cognitive
Development
1.
Learning Self-Identity (at a SensoriMotor Level)
2.
Representational Substrate for Concepts/Thinking
3.
Developmental Rules: Mechanisms of Conceptual
Change
“Neuroscience and Infant psychology research have made progress on
These issues – while Robotics/Computational approaches lag”
(1) Body-Image: e.g. Learning a
sensorimotor model of one’s arm
1. Graziano, Cooke, Taylor
[Vol 290, Science Dec 2000]
2. Rao (CogVis, 2002)
ps=[4, 20, 10]
ps=[6, 21, 11] ps=[9, 24, 14]
(2) Sensorimotor
Representations not Perepheral,
but Central to Cognitive Tasks
Perception Representational Systems central not only to “being” in the world
(perceiving and taking action) but also “thinking” about it.
Common-Sense
Reasoning
Language
Perceptual
Representations &
Processes
Object
Numerical
Recognition
Ability
1.
Perceptual processes get re-used for
inference.
2.
Perceptual processes may underlie
abstract concept formation
Visuospatial Analysis
“Is the white table in-between
the two people?”
“How many countries does
the equator pass through
in africa?”
Re-used for other “non-visual” problems as well…
Representational Basis of
Concepts
[Dehaene, Spelke,
Pinel, Stanescu,
Tsivkin
– Science 1999]
4+5= 9?7
4+5~ 8?3
Approx: bilateral parietal lobes – visually guided eye and hand movements
Exact: left-lateralized left angular gyrus – verb association tasks
(3) Conceptual Change
Development of the concept of “Positive Integers” [Carey 2004]
• One-knowers (6 to 9 months)
• Two-knowers (~2 months)
• Three-knowers (~2 months)
• Induce how Counting works
Progression happens because different Base-Representations come into
Play:
Counting-Procedure
Token-individuation
(successor relation)
Analog-Magnitude
Natural-language Quantifiers
Cognitive Development:
specific targets for research
1. Learning to distinguish self from the world
2. Re-use of perceptual-motor mechanisms for
thought – origins of concepts
3. Mechanisms of Conceptual Change