Perceptual development triggered by its self-organization in cognitive learning

Abstract

It has been suggested that perceptual immaturity in early infancy enhances learning for various cognitive functions. This paper demonstrates the role of visual development triggered by self-organization in a learner's visual space in a case of the mirror neuron system (MNS). A robot learns a function of the MNS by associating self-induced motor commands with observed motions while the observed motions are gradually self-organized in the visual space. A temporal convergence of the self-organization triggers visual development, which improves spatiotemporal blur filters for the robot's vision and thus further advances self-organization in the visual space. Experimental results show that the self-triggered development enables the robot to adaptively change the speed of the development (i.e., slower in the early stage and faster in the later stage) and thus to acquire clearer correspondence between self and other (i.e., the MNS).