Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation
We bridge the gap between two issues in infant development: vocal development and intrinsic motivation. We propose and experimentally test the hypothesis that general mechanisms of intrinsically motivated spontaneous exploration, also called curiosity-driven learning, can self-organize developmental...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01006/full |
| _version_ | 1828157214135681024 |
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| author | Clément eMoulin-Frier Sao Mai eNguyen Pierre-Yves eOudeyer |
| author_facet | Clément eMoulin-Frier Sao Mai eNguyen Pierre-Yves eOudeyer |
| author_sort | Clément eMoulin-Frier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We bridge the gap between two issues in infant development: vocal development and intrinsic motivation. We propose and experimentally test the hypothesis that general mechanisms of intrinsically motivated spontaneous exploration, also called curiosity-driven learning, can self-organize developmental stages during early vocal learning. We introduce a computational model of intrinsically motivated vocal exploration, which allows the learner to autonomously structure its own vocal experiments, and thus its own learning schedule, through a drive to maximize competence progress. This model relies on a physical model of the vocal tract, the auditory system and the agent's motor control as well as vocalizations of social peers. We present computational experiments that show how such a mechanism can explain the adaptive transition from vocal self-exploration with little influence from the speech environment, to a later stage where vocal exploration becomes influenced by vocalizations of peers. Within the initial self-exploration phase, we show that a sequence of vocal production stages self-organizes, and shares properties with data from infant developmental psychology: the vocal learner first discovers how to control phonation, then focuses on vocal variations of unarticulated sounds, and finally automatically discovers and focuses on babbling with articulated proto-syllables. As the vocal learner becomes more proficient at producing complex sounds, imitating vocalizations of peers starts to provide high learning progress explaining an automatic shift from self-exploration to vocal imitation.<br/> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T23:24:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f00de497cba44d9c9bf13024f3c40f93 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T23:24:58Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f00de497cba44d9c9bf13024f3c40f932022-12-22T03:57:21ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782014-01-01410.3389/fpsyg.2013.0100661678Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic MotivationClément eMoulin-Frier0Sao Mai eNguyen1Pierre-Yves eOudeyer2INRIAINRIAINRIAWe bridge the gap between two issues in infant development: vocal development and intrinsic motivation. We propose and experimentally test the hypothesis that general mechanisms of intrinsically motivated spontaneous exploration, also called curiosity-driven learning, can self-organize developmental stages during early vocal learning. We introduce a computational model of intrinsically motivated vocal exploration, which allows the learner to autonomously structure its own vocal experiments, and thus its own learning schedule, through a drive to maximize competence progress. This model relies on a physical model of the vocal tract, the auditory system and the agent's motor control as well as vocalizations of social peers. We present computational experiments that show how such a mechanism can explain the adaptive transition from vocal self-exploration with little influence from the speech environment, to a later stage where vocal exploration becomes influenced by vocalizations of peers. Within the initial self-exploration phase, we show that a sequence of vocal production stages self-organizes, and shares properties with data from infant developmental psychology: the vocal learner first discovers how to control phonation, then focuses on vocal variations of unarticulated sounds, and finally automatically discovers and focuses on babbling with articulated proto-syllables. As the vocal learner becomes more proficient at producing complex sounds, imitating vocalizations of peers starts to provide high learning progress explaining an automatic shift from self-exploration to vocal imitation.<br/>http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01006/fullImitationself-organizationcuriosity-driven learningintrinsic motivationgoal babblingVocal Development |
| spellingShingle | Clément eMoulin-Frier Sao Mai eNguyen Pierre-Yves eOudeyer Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation Frontiers in Psychology Imitation self-organization curiosity-driven learning intrinsic motivation goal babbling Vocal Development |
| title | Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation |
| title_full | Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation |
| title_fullStr | Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation |
| title_short | Self-Organization of Early Vocal Development in Infants and Machines: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation |
| title_sort | self organization of early vocal development in infants and machines the role of intrinsic motivation |
| topic | Imitation self-organization curiosity-driven learning intrinsic motivation goal babbling Vocal Development |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01006/full |
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