Re: How does this robot know it has arms?
- From: curt@xxxxxxxx (Curt Welch)
- Date: 02 Sep 2007 18:32:21 GMT
RMDumse <rmd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But one of the things I think they discover first, is their "thoughts"
are somehow connected to getting what they want.
It's sure a shame that we don't have better tools to monitor what a brain
is doing so we could get a better understanding of what type of thoughts
develop in babies and when. There are just all sorts of interesting
questions we have no way to answer because of our lack of ability to
perform high resolution brain monitoring.
The example of a baby understanding he needs to move his legs before he
learns to do it doesn't have to be a very complex thought, but it would be
interesting to know just what type of thought a baby actually has about
this. Is he able to visual his leg moving as if he were walking before he
has ever walked? I suspect not.
I suspect the type of thoughts the baby is having is not even as complex as
visualizing himself walking. I suspect it's working at a much simpler level
at that point of his development. I suspect at that point he's developed
recognition circuits in his brain which is able to recognize legs, and
recognize simple walking actions because he's seen it in other humans. I
also suspect that other humans have become secondary reinforcers for the
baby because they are predictors of "good things to come". When he stands,
or moves his legs correctly, he is reward by these secondary reinforcers
simply because he has created in his environment the thing which acts as a
reward to him (a human walking). The reward only works when he actually
sees the legs moving in the right way, so this is why he will stare at his
hands, or legs, as he moves them.
In other words, I think this sort of behavior in babies is probably best
explained as simply mimicking behavior driving by secondary reinforcers.
The baby is attempting to reproduce the things he has learned to love (the
sight of a legs moving in a walking pattern).
I don't think the baby would yet have any sort of concept that walking will
allow him to get something he wants. So I don't think he's having any sort
of thoughts that could be described as wanting to learn to walk so he can
move around the room faster. He would by that point have developed the
desire to "get things" and he would have learned to use his arms and hands
to reach out and grab something, and learn to craw to get things, but the
thought that walking might be better than crawling I think would be beyond
what he could understand. I think the attempts to move his leg are just
attempts to mimic something he likes. That's my best guess as to what
level of "thoughts" the baby is dealing with at that point. Basically I
would say the thoughts translate to, "oh, that was cool, it looked just
like mom, lets try to make that happen again". :)
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@xxxxxxxx http://NewsReader.Com/
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