Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Stability of Coordination Requires Mutuality of Interaction in a Model of Embodied Agents

  • Conference paper
From Animals to Animats 10 (SAB 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5040))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 1178 Accesses

Abstract

We used an evolutionary robotics methodology to generate pairs of simulated agents capable of reliably establishing and maintaining a coordination pattern under noisy conditions. Unlike previous related work, agents were only evolved for this ability and not for their capacity to discriminate social contingency (i.e., a live responsive partner) from non-contingent engagements (i.e., a recording). However, when they were made to interact with a recording of their partner made during a successful previous interaction, the coordination pattern could not be established. An analysis of the system’s underlying dynamics revealed (i) that stability of the coordination pattern requires ongoing mutuality of interaction, and (ii) that the interaction process is not only constituted by, but also constitutive of, individual behavior.  We suggest that this stability of coordination is a general property of a certain class of interactively coupled dynamical systems, and conclude that psychological explanations of an individual’s sensitivity to social contingency need to take into account the role of the interaction process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Beer, R.D.: The dynamics of adaptive behavior: A research program. Robotics and Autonomous Systems 20, 257–289 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. De Jaegher, H., Di Paolo, E.A.: Participatory sense-making: An enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 6, 485–507 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Di Paolo, E.A.: Behavioral coordination, structural congruence and entrainment in a simulation of acoustically coupled agents. Adaptive Behavior 8, 25–46 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Di Paolo, E.A., Rohde, M., Iizuka, H.: Sensitivity to social contingency or stability of interaction? Modelling the dynamics of perceptual crossing. New Ideas in Psychology (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Froese, T., Virgo, N., Izquierdo, E.: Autonomy: a review and a reappraisal. In: Almeida e Costa, F., et al. (eds.) ECAL 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4648, pp. 455–464. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Gergely, G., Watson, J.: Early social-emotional development: contingency perception and the social biofeedback model. In: Rochat, P. (ed.) Early social cognition: Understanding others in the first months of life, pp. 101–137. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Harvey, I.: Artificial Evolution: A Continuing SAGA. In: Gomi, T. (ed.) ER-EvoRob 2001. LNCS, vol. 2217, pp. 94–109. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Harvey, I., Di Paolo, E.A., Wood, R., Quinn, M., Tuci, E.A.: Evolutionary Robotics: A new scientific tool for studying cognition. Artificial Life 11, 79–98 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Iizuka, H., Di Paolo, E.A.: Minimal Agency Detection of Embodied Agents. In: Almeida e Costa, F., et al. (eds.) ECAL 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4648, pp. 485–494. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Iizuka, H., Ikegami, T.: Adaptability and diversity in simulated turn-taking behavior. Artificial Life 10, 361–378 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ikegami, T., Iizuka, H.: Turn-taking interaction as a cooperative and co-creative process. Infant Behavior and Development 30, 278–288 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Murray, L., Trevarthen, C.: Emotional regulations of interactions between two-month-olds and their mothers. In: Field, T.M., Fox, N.A. (eds.) Social perception in infants, pp. 177–197. Ablex Publishing, Norwood (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Nadel, J., Carchon, I., Kervella, C., Marcelli, D., Réserbat-Plantey, D.: Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds. Developmental Science 2, 164–173 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Quinn, M.: Evolving communication without dedicated communication channels. In: Kelemen, J., Sosík, P. (eds.) ECAL 2001. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2159, pp. 357–366. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Russel, J.: Agency: Its role in mental development. Taylor & Francis, Hove (1996)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR),Dept. of Informatics, University of Sussex, UK

    Tom Froese & Ezequiel A. Di Paolo

Authors
  1. Tom Froese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ezequiel A. Di Paolo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Minoru Asada John C. T. Hallam Jean-Arcady Meyer Jun Tani

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Froese, T., Di Paolo, E.A. (2008). Stability of Coordination Requires Mutuality of Interaction in a Model of Embodied Agents. In: Asada, M., Hallam, J.C.T., Meyer, JA., Tani, J. (eds) From Animals to Animats 10. SAB 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5040. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-69133-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69134-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics