The agent-based approach emphasizes the importance of learning through organism-environment interaction. This approach is part of a recent trend in computational models of learning and development toward studying autonomous organisms that are embedded in virtual or real environments. In this paper we introduce the concepts of online and offline sampling and highlight the role of online sampling in agent-based models. After comparing the strengths of each approach for modeling particular developmental phenomena and research questions, we describe a recent agent-based model of infant causal perception. We conclude by discussing some of the present limitations of agent-based models and suggesting how these challenges may be addressed. © 2001 Academic Press Computational models of learning and development are playing an increasingly critical role in child development research (Cassidy, 1990;

This thesis presents a perceptual system for a humanoid robot that integrates abilities such as object localization and recognition with the deeper developmental machinery required to forge those competences out of raw physical experiences. It shows that a robotic platform can build up and maintain a system for object localization, segmentation, and recognition, starting from very little. What the robot starts with is a direct solution to achieving figure/ground separation: it simply `pokes around' in a region of visual ambiguity and watches what happens. If the arm passes through an area, that area is recognized as free space. If the arm collides with an object, causing it to move, the robot can use that motion to segment the object from the background. Once the robot can acquire reliable segmented views of objects, it learns from them, and from then on recognizes and segments those objects without further contact. Both low-level and high-level visual features can also be learned in this way, and examples are presented for both: orientation detection and affordance recognition, respectively.

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The present studies investigate infants reliance on object kind information in solving the problem of object individuation. Two experiments explored whether adults, 10- and 12month -old infants could use their knowledge of ducks and cars to individuate an ambiguous array consisting of a toy duck perched on a toy car into two objects. A third experiment investigated whether 10-month-old infants could use their knowledge of cups and shoes to individuate an array consisting of a cup perched on a shoe into two objects. Ten-month-old infants failed to use object kind information alone to resolve the ambiguity with both pairs of objects. In contrast, infants this age succeeded in using spatiotemporal information to segment the array into two objects, i.e. they succeeded if shown that the duck moved independently relative to the car, or the cup relative to the shoe. Twelve-month-old infants, as well as adults, succeeded at object individuation on the basis of object kind information alone.

Four studies investigated whether and when infants connect information about an actor's affect and perception to their action. Arguably, this may be a crucial way in which infants come to recognize the intentional behaviors of others. In Study 1 an actor grasped one of two objects in a situation where cues from the actor's gaze and expression could serve to determine which object would be grasped, specifically the actor first looked at and emoted positively about one object but not the other. Twelve-month-olds, but not 8-month-olds, recognized that the actor was likely to grasp the object which she had visually regarded with positive affect. Studies 2, 3, and 4 replicated the main finding from Study 1 with 12- and 14-month-olds and included several contrasting conditions and controls. These studies provide evidence that the ability to use information about an adult's direction of gaze and emotional expression to predict action is both present, and developing at the end of the first year of life. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

This report has been prepared in the form of an HTML document, which is available on the World-Wide Web at ftp:##ftp.cs.indiana.edu#pub#gasser#Playpen#TR1#tr#tr.html. It makes extensive use of color #gures, animated applets, and hyperlinks. There is a compressed Postscript version of the report available by anonymous ftp to ftp.cs.indiana.edu at #pub#gasser#Playpen#TR1.ps.Z. This includes the color #gures but not the applets and hyperlinks. Therefore we highly recommend the version on the Web

ts, like adults, draw upon spatiotemporal information---information about the spatial arrangements and motions of visible surfaces---to establish representations of discrete individuals. Two objects separated in space (on the frontal plane or in depth), or moving on spatiotemporally discontinuous trajectories, are resolved into distinct individuals (e.g., Baillargeon, 1991, 1995; Spelke, 1991; Spelke, von Hofsten, & Kestenbaum, 1989; von Hofsten & Spelke, 1985; Xu & Carey, 1996). In her previous work, Needham has shown that by 4.5 months of age, infants also draw upon featural information to resolve ambiguous displays 55 Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 78, 55--60 (2001) doi:10.1006/jecp.2000.2603, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on 0022-0965/01 $35.00 Copyright 2001 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Susan Carey, Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 7t

Robots and humans receive partial, fragmentary hints about the world’s state through their respective sensors. In this paper, we focus on some fundamental problems in perception that have attracted the attention of researchers in both robotics and infant development: object segregation, intermodal inte-gration, and the role of embodiment. We concentrate on identifying points of contact between the two fields, and also important questions identified in one field and not yet addressed in the other. For object segregation, both fields have examined the idea of using “key events ” where perception is in some way simplified and the infant or robot acquires knowledge that can be exploited at other times. We examine this parallel research in some detail. We propose that the identification of the key events themselves constitutes a point of contact between the fields. And although the specific algorithms used in robots are not easy to relate to infant development, the overall “algorithmic skeleton ” formed by the set of algorithms needed to identify and exploit key events may in fact form a basis for mutual dialogue.

Robots and humans receive partial, fragmentary hints about the world’s state through their respective sensors. These hints – tiny patches of light intensity, frequency components of sound, etc. – are far removed from the world of objects we feel we perceive so effortlessly around us. The study of infant development and the construction of robots are both deeply concerned with how this apparent gap between the world and our experience of it is bridged. In this paper, we focus on some fundamental problems in perception that have attracted the attention of researchers in both robotics and infant development. Our goal is to identify points of contact already existing between the two fields, and also important questions identified in one field that could fruitfully be addressed in the other. We start with the problem of object segregation: how do infants and robots determine visually where one object ends and another begins? For object segregation, both fields have examined the idea of using “key events ” where perception is in some way simplified and the infant or robot acquires knowledge that can be exploited at other times. We propose that the identification of the key events themselves constitutes a point of contact between the fields. And although the specific algorithms used in robots do not necessarily map directly to infant strategies, the overall “algorithmic skeleton ” formed by the set of algorithms needed to identify and exploit key events may in fact form a basis for mutual dialogue. We then look more broadly at the role of embodiment in humans and robots, and see the opportunities it affords for development.

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