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Understanding Infant Tool Use Development: Mechanisms and Milestones

This overview examines the development of tool use in infants, highlighting cognitive growth from birth to 24 months. It details essential mechanisms such as repetition, variation, and differentiation in learning through play. The text emphasizes problem-solving skills, including selecting the right tools and spatial arrangement for effective manipulation. Key developmental milestones are outlined, showcasing how infants transition from simple actions to complex behaviors. Insights from developmental psychology and robotics research are integrated, offering valuable perspectives for roboticists in understanding human-like cognition.

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Understanding Infant Tool Use Development: Mechanisms and Milestones

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  1. The Development of Tool Use in Infancy

  2. Talk Overview Background: Understand infant cognitive development The Problem of Tool Use: What is required What develops Mechanisms of Development: Behavioural schemas (Six mechanisms) Representations (Redescription) Linking Two tracks Reflection, and Direction for Roboticists Psychology Robotics research

  3. Timeline of Development Birth 6 9 12 15 18 24 months Free Play: stereotypical accommodative relational simple relational functional relational Overlapping waves (Siegler)

  4. Timeline of Development Birth 6 9 12 15 18 24 months Free Play: stereotypical accommodative relational simple relational functional relational Problem solving: support string stick radial grasp shapes in slots • Two essential aspects always present • Play: vary situations, performance, discover how it works • Problem Solving: discover means good for particular goals

  5. The Problem of Tool Use • Selecting the right tool or tools • Spatially arranging the right relationships (between tools and target objects) • Performing the appropriate manipulations • Degrees of Freedom • Solve by • Forward Search • Forward Search with Heuristics • Means-end

  6. What Develops in Infants? • Planning seems to be present early • Some improvements in Memory, Backtracking, Inhibition • Development of Schemas (≈ Planning Operators) • Sensorimotor Schema • Development of Representations • Objects • Space, spatial relationships • Actions • ….

  7. What Develops in Infants? • Planning seems to be present early • Some improvements in Memory, Backtracking, Inhibition • Development of Schemas (≈ Planning Operators) • Sensorimoto • Development of Representations • Objects • Space, spatial relationships • Actions • …. 1 2

  8. 2 1

  9. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Composition • M5 Modularisation • M6 Decomposition

  10. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Opportunistic • Where schema can • Leads to discoveries • (affordance) • (play)

  11. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Parameter variation • Understand effects • Generate new results • Especially at difficulty • Transition periods

  12. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Unexpected result • Find preconditions • Adjust motor action Branching in behaviour graph

  13. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Borrowed movement too crude • Refine parts • Flexible reassembly Branching in behaviour graph

  14. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Simple sequence • Hierarchical control Behaviour graph (join)

  15. Mechanisms • M1 Repetition • M2 Variation and selection • M3 Differentiation • M4 Decomposition • M5 Composition • M6 Modularisation • Refine by repetition, variation and selection, produce a “smooth atom” • Ready to be used as subunit • (for ongoing development) Behaviour graph (join)

  16. Stereotypical (Without Objects) • Arm wave (100%): rapid flapping from shoulder • (surface slapping, waving objects/banging) • Finger flex (100%); flexion and extension of all four fingers • ( exploratory behaviours with objects) • Hand rotate (90%) and flex (80%): a rhythmic rotation, bending and extending of the wrist • (object exploration?) • Clap hands together (75%) • ( banging objects together) (85%) • Finger rotate (15%): similar to turning a large dial • (rotation of lids/dials?)

  17. Single Objects • Reach + Grasp • Developing the Stereotypical Behaviours with Objects: • Waving a rattle • Catch/release or scratch • or squeezing an object, or crushing (e.g. paper) • (differentiation (M3), variation and selection (M2)) • Multi-sensory Object Exploration • Hand-Surface interaction

  18. Object-Object • Object-surface  object-object • Obstacle removal • Support • String • Lever • Stick ( the magic happens here ) • Fitting Shapes into Slots (peg-in-hole task) • Spoon-feeding (and other objects with handles) Reinforcement learning

  19. Timeline of Development Birth 6 9 12 15 18 24 months Really interesting part Free Play: stereotypical accommodative relational simple relational functional relational Problem solving: support string stick radial grasp shapes in slots Overlapping waves (Siegler)

  20. DONE single object object-object stereotypical

  21. Representations (Objects, Space, …) • Transfer as a proxy • Brown: • Level of representation rather than age • determines transfer efficiency

  22. Representations (Objects, Space) • Coarse to Fine • Some situations generalise very well, and immediately • Sometimes over-generalise (scale errors, incompatible shapes) • Context Specific to General • Integration of Fragmentary Representations

  23. Representations (Objects, Space) • Coarse to Fine • Context Specific to General • Some situations, do not generalise well at all • Spoon for self-feeding, or for directing to another object • hand in a slot vs. posting a disk • Integration of Fragmentary Representations

  24. Representations (Objects, Space) • Coarse to Fine • Context Specific to General • Integration of Fragmentary Representations • “perception leads to multiple representations that may be recruited for different tasks” • 4-month-olds perceive 3D form of rotating wireframes • 6-month-olds “complete” solid 3D objects • 18-month-olds still use fragmentary representations • 24-month-olds 3D whole-object geometric representations • Advantages of fragmentary / task specific representations: • Simple space which for particular task • When another seems more appropriate  switch representation

  25. Sensorimotor & Representation Linking Tracks

  26. MOVING OF MOUTH EDGES MOVING OF CONTAINER EDGES

  27. Container (object) Push (action) Higher order concept inside (spatial relationship) broken (object state)

  28. Reflection • Planning present early, but few schemas (planning operators) • Initial Knowledge is Fragmentary and Incomplete • “to understand is to invent”, + schedule • Infants Learn Slowly, but Thoroughly • representations slow to change • Generalisation Depends on Representation • What are infants good and bad at? • Good: build on what they know, try out, refine, assimilate • Bad: make big leaps  take several months

  29. Emulating in a Robot… • Start with Few Schemas, to Get a Lot(Crucial to implement the Mechanisms) • Representations Must Develop Gradually • Interaction Between the Concrete and Abstract Tracks • Difficult but Crucial (structural bootstrapping) • Addressing the main mystery of development • Guiding Examples and Benchmarks for Development

  30. Advancing the Science • Many take “inspiration” from infants: • Affordances, intrinsic motivation, play • Need to: Model whole development, e.g. from 6 to 18 months • Aim for Same Behaviour • How do they explore a space? • How is old knowledge re-used? • How robust is the behaviour? • Representation

  31. Advancing the Science Psychology Robotics Modelling: Means-end behaviours Experiments: Get training into lab   X   X X X

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