scholarly journals Emergent Goal-Anticipatory Gaze in Infants via Event-Predictive Learning and Inference

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gumbsch ◽  
Maurits Adam ◽  
Birgit Elsner ◽  
Martin V. Butz
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Predictive Models ◽  
Object Manipulation ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
Action Goal ◽  
Predictive Learning ◽  
Multiple Object ◽  
Event Boundary

From about six months of age onwards, infants start to reliably fixate the goal of an observed action, such as a grasp, before the action is complete. The available research has identified a variety of factors that influence such goal-anticipatory gaze shifts, including the experience with the shown action events and familiarity with the observed agents. However, the underlying cognitive processes are still heavily debated. We propose that our minds (i) tend to structure sensorimotor dynamics into probabilistic, generative event- and event-boundary-predictive models, and, meanwhile, (ii) choose actions with the objective to minimize predicted uncertainty. We implement this proposition by means of event-predictive learning and active inference. The implemented learning mechanism induces an inductive, event-predictive bias, thus developing schematic encodings of experienced events and event boundaries. The implemented active inference principle chooses actions by aiming at minimizing expected future uncertainty. We train our system on multiple object-manipulation events. As a result, the generation of goal-anticipatory gaze shifts emerges while learning about object manipulations: the model starts fixating the inferred goal already at the start of an observed event after having sampled some experience with possible events and when a familiar agent (i.e., a hand) is involved. Meanwhile, the model keeps reactively tracking an unfamiliar agent (i.e a mechanical claw) that is performing the same movement. We conclude that event-predictive learning combined with active inference may be critical for eliciting infant action-goal prediction.

Multiple-Object Tracking

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Botterill ◽  
R. Allen ◽  
P. McGeorge
Keyword(s):  
Object Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Multiple Object Tracking ◽  
Tracking Performance ◽  
Multiple Object

The Multiple-Object Tracking paradigm has most commonly been utilized to investigate how subsets of targets can be tracked from among a set of identical objects. Recently, this research has been extended to examine the function of featural information when tracking is of objects that can be individuated. We report on a study whose findings suggest that, while participants can only hold featural information for roughly two targets this task does not affect tracking performance detrimentally and points to a discontinuity between the cognitive processes that subserve spatial location and featural information.

scholarly journals Dynamic arousal signals construct memories of time and events

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Clewett ◽  
Camille Gasser ◽  
Lila Davachi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Recent Event ◽  
Event Sequences ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Event Boundary ◽  
The Brain

AbstractEveryday life unfolds continuously, yet we tend to remember past experiences as discrete event sequences or episodes. Although this phenomenon has been well documented, the brain mechanisms that support the transformation of continuous experience into memorable episodes remain unknown. Here we show that a sudden change in context, or ‘event boundary’, elicits a burst of autonomic arousal, as indexed by pupil dilation. These boundaries during dynamic experience also led to the segmentation of adjacent episodes in later memory, evidenced by changes in memory for the timing, order, and perceptual details of recent event sequences. Critically, we find that distinct cognitive components of this pupil response were associated with both subjective (temporal distance judgements) and objective (temporal order discrimination) measures of episodic memory, suggesting that multiple arousal-mediated cognitive processes help construct meaningful mnemonic events. Together, these findings reveal that arousal processes may play a fundamental role in everyday memory organization.

scholarly journals Active Inference and Cooperative Communication: An Ecological Alternative to the Alignment View

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémi Tison ◽  
Pierre Poirier
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cooperative Communication ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
Prior Belief ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint ◽  
Selection Of

We present and contrast two accounts of cooperative communication, both based on Active Inference, a framework that unifies biological and cognitive processes. The mental alignment account, defended in Vasil et al., takes the function of cooperative communication to be the alignment of the interlocutor's mental states, and cooperative communicative behavior to be driven by an evolutionarily selected adaptive prior belief favoring the selection of action policies that promote such an alignment. We argue that the mental alignment account should be rejected because it neglects the action-oriented nature of cooperative communication, which skews its view of the dynamics of communicative interaction. We introduce our own conception of cooperative communication, inspired by a more radical ecological interpretation of the active inference framework. Cooperative communication, on our ecological conception, serves to guide and constrain the dynamics of the cooperative interaction via the construction and restructuring of shared fields of affordances, in order to reach the local goals of the joint actions in which episodes of cooperative communication are embedded. We argue that our ecological conception provides a better theoretical standpoint to account for the action-oriented nature of cooperative communication in the active inference framework.

scholarly journals Color influences identification of the moving objects more than shape

Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Vidakovic ◽  
Suncica Zdravkovic
Keyword(s):  
Object Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Moving Objects ◽  
Multiple Object Tracking ◽  
Cognitive System ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Spatiotemporal Characteristics ◽  
Multiple Object ◽  
Different Characteristics ◽  
As If

When people track moving objects, they concentrate on different characteristics. Recent results show that people more often concentrate on spatiotemporal than featural properties of the objects. In other words, location and direction of motion seem to be more informative properties than the stable featural characteristics. This finding contradicts some of our knowledge about cognitive system. Current research was done in attempt to specify the effect of featural characteristics, especially color and shape. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to track four mobile targets presented with another four moving objects. After the motion has stopped, they had to mark the initial four targets. Our results have shown that participants pay more attention to the featural properties than to spatiotemporal characteristics. Since our task was more difficult than the tasks typically reported in the literature, the results might be interpreted as if the subjects relied mostly on attentional processes. The task in Experiment 2 was made even more difficult: the subjects were asked to direct attention on identity of every target. Consequently, the task demanded more complex cognitive processes and emphasizing effects of featural properties. Results suggest that color and shape does not have the same influences on multiple object tracking, but that color has more significant effect.

Sparse coding and challenges for Bayesian models of the brain

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Trappenberg ◽  
Paul Hollensen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Sparse Coding ◽  
Bayesian Models ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Predictive Learning ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Brain

AbstractWhile the target article provides a glowing account for the excitement in the field, we stress that hierarchical predictive learning in the brain requires sparseness of the representation. We also question the relation between Bayesian cognitive processes and hierarchical generative models as discussed by the target article.

scholarly journals The propositional nature of human associative learning

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris J. Mitchell ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
Peter F. Lovibond
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
High Level

AbstractThe past 50 years have seen an accumulation of evidence suggesting that associative learning depends on high-level cognitive processes that give rise to propositional knowledge. Yet, many learning theorists maintain a belief in a learning mechanism in which links between mental representations are formed automatically. We characterize and highlight the differences between the propositional and link approaches, and review the relevant empirical evidence. We conclude that learning is the consequence of propositional reasoning processes that cooperate with the unconscious processes involved in memory retrieval and perception. We argue that this new conceptual framework allows many of the important recent advances in associative learning research to be retained, but recast in a model that provides a firmer foundation for both immediate application and future research.

scholarly journals Prefrontal Computation as Active Inference

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 682-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr ◽  
Rajeev Vijay Rikhye ◽  
Michael M Halassa ◽  
Karl J Friston
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Message Passing ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Delay Period ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Inference Problem ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Trial Basis ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The prefrontal cortex is vital for a range of cognitive processes, including working memory, attention, and decision-making. Notably, its absence impairs the performance of tasks requiring the maintenance of information through a delay period. In this paper, we formulate a rodent task—which requires maintenance of delay-period activity—as a Markov decision process and treat optimal task performance as an (active) inference problem. We simulate the behavior of a Bayes optimal mouse presented with 1 of 2 cues that instructs the selection of concurrent visual and auditory targets on a trial-by-trial basis. Formulating inference as message passing, we reproduce features of neuronal coupling within and between prefrontal regions engaged by this task. We focus on the micro-circuitry that underwrites delay-period activity and relate it to functional specialization within the prefrontal cortex in primates. Finally, we simulate the electrophysiological correlates of inference and demonstrate the consequences of lesions to each part of our in silico prefrontal cortex. In brief, this formulation suggests that recurrent excitatory connections—which support persistent neuronal activity—encode beliefs about transition probabilities over time. We argue that attentional modulation can be understood as the contextualization of sensory input by these persistent beliefs.

scholarly journals Relational affordances for multiple-object manipulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Moldovan ◽  
Plinio Moreno ◽  
Davide Nitti ◽  
José Santos-Victor ◽  
Luc De Raedt
Keyword(s):  
Object Manipulation ◽  
Multiple Object
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