Abstract
Examining the different stages of learning through play in humans during early life has been a topic of interest for various scholars. Play evolves from practice to symbolic and then later to play with rules. During practice play, infants go through a process of developing knowledge while they interact with the surrounding objects, facilitating the creation of new knowledge about objects and object related behaviors. Such knowledge is used to form schemas in which the manifestation of sensorimotor experiences is captured. Through subsequent play, certain schemas are further combined to generate chains able to achieve behaviors that require multiple steps. The chains of schemas demonstrate the formation of higher level actions in a hierarchical structure. In this work we present a schema-based play generator for artificial agents, termed Dev-PSchema. With the help of experiments in a simulated environment and with the iCub robot, we demonstrate the ability of our system to create schemas of sensorimotor experiences from playful interaction with the environment. We show the creation of schema chains consisting of a sequence of actions that allow an agent to autonomously perform complex tasks. In addition to demonstrating the ability to learn through playful behavior, we demonstrate the capability of Dev-PSchema to simulate different infants with different preferences toward novel vs. familiar objects.
Highlights
Humans are capable of learning within different environments and of extending their knowledge to new situations
We present two different experiments that demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed schema system
Grasp happens to be the exciting action to be performed, and due to the perception changes at both visual and proprioceptive levels, new schemas are generated. These new experiences are repeated and followed by a release action, an order which leads to the creation of a schema chain in the system; “Grasp→Release.”
Summary
Humans are capable of learning within different environments and of extending their knowledge to new situations. We are capable of generalizing experiences and of repeating successful behaviors that were previously expressed, in related situations. Developing this capability in robots is one of the major goals of roboticists. Piaget’s cognitive theory (Piaget and Cook, 1952) proposes different learning stages in humans, supporting the idea of constructivism. He believed that children develop a variety of cognitive skills at different ages.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
