Imitation and Social Learning in Robots, Humans and Animals
Behavioural, Social and Communicative Dimensions

A unique, interdisciplinary study into the field of imitation and social learning in robots, humans and animals.

Chrystopher L. Nehaniv (Edited by), Kerstin Dautenhahn (Edited by)

9780521108638, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 April 2009

508 pages, 77 b/w illus. 20 colour illus. 5 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.74 kg

'Imitation has become the hottest of multidisciplinary topics in recent years. Nehaniv and Dautenhan have led the way in recognising the very special potential for cross-fertilisation between engineers endeavouring to create truly imitative robots and researchers studying imitation in natural systems, from parrots to people. In this substantial new state-of-the-art volume, they bring together leading figures to provide an unprecedented appraisal of the key issues and the most recent discoveries in this field.' Andrew Whiten, Wardlaw Professor of Psychology, University of St Andrews

Mechanisms of imitation and social matching play a fundamental role in development, communication, interaction, learning and culture. Their investigation in different agents (animals, humans and robots) has significantly influenced our understanding of the nature and origins of social intelligence. Whilst such issues have traditionally been studied in areas such as psychology, biology and ethnology, it has become increasingly recognised that a 'constructive approach' towards imitation and social learning via the synthesis of artificial agents can provide important insights into mechanisms and create artefacts that can be instructed and taught by imitation, demonstration, and social interaction rather than by explicit programming. This book studies increasingly sophisticated models and mechanisms of social matching behaviour and marks an important step towards the development of an interdisciplinary research field, consolidating and providing a valuable reference for the increasing number of researchers in the field of imitation and social learning in robots, humans and animals.

Introduction: The constructive interdisciplinary viewpoint for understanding mechanisms and models of imitation and social learning Kerstin Dautenhahn and Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
Part I. Correspondence Problems and Mechanisms: 1. Imitation: thoughts about theories Geoffrey Bird and Cecilia Heyes
2. Nine billion correspondence problems Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
3. Challenges and issues faced in building a framework for conducting research in learning from observation Darrin Bentivegna, Christopher Atkeson and Gordon Cheng
Part II. Mirroring and 'Mind-Reading': 4. A neural architecture for imitation and intentional relations Marco Iacoboni, Jonas Kaplan and Stephen Wilson
5. Simulation theory of understanding others: a robotics perspective Yiannis Demiris and Matthew Johnson
6. Mirrors and matchings: imitation from the perspective of mirror-self-recognition and the parietal region's involvement in both Robert W. Mitchell
Part III. What to Imitate: 7. The question of 'what to imitate': inferring goals and intentions from demonstrations Malinda Carpenter and Josep Call
8. Learning of gestures by imitation in a humanoid robot Sylvain Calinon and Aude Billard
9. The dynamic emergence of categories through imitation Tony Belpaeme, Bart de Boer and Bart Jansen
Part IV. Development and Embodiment: 10. Copying strategies by people with autistic spectrum disorder: why only imitation leads to social cognitive development Justin H. G. Williams
11. A bayesian model of imitation in infants and robots Rajesh P. N. Rao, Aaron P. Shon and Andrew N. Meltzoff
12. Solving the correspondence problem in robotic imitation across embodiments: synchrony, perception and culture in artefacts Aris Alissandrakis, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv and Kerstin Dautenhahn
Part V. Synchrony and Turn-Taking as Communicative Mechanisms: 13. How to build an imitator? Arnaud Revel and Jacqueline Nadel
14. Simulated turn-taking and development of styles of motion Takashi Ikegami and Hiroki Iizuka
15. Bullying behaviour, empathy and imitation: an attempted synthesis Kerstin Dautenhahn, Sarah N. Woods and Christina Kaouri
Part VI. Why Imitate? Motivations: 16. Multiple motivations for imitation in infancy Mark Nielsen and Virginia Slaughter
17. The progress drive hypothesis: an interpretation of early imitation Frédéric Kaplan and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Part VII. Social Feedback: 18. Training behaviour by imitation: from parrots to people … to robots? Irene M. Pepperberg and Diane V. Sherman
19. Task learning through imitation and human-robot interaction Monica N. Nicolescu and Maja J. Mataric
Part VIII. The Ecological Context: 20. Emulation learning: the integration of technical and social cognition Ludwig Huber
21. Mimicry as deceptive resemblance: beyond the one-trick ponies Mark D. Norman and Tom Tregenza.

Subject Areas: Artificial intelligence [UYQ], Robotics [TJFM1], Neurosciences [PSAN], Child & developmental psychology [JMC]