Articles in the Academia category

Nov 13 · Academia

Movement control without internal models

My latest paper has just been published by Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience and can be accessed free of charge here. It concerns the question of whether we need internal models (simulations) in order to control our movements, or whether our body and the lower-level neural circuits innervating it provide some control “for free”.

From the abstract:

The dynamic interaction of limb segments during movements that involve multiple joints creates torques in one joint due to motion about another. Evidence shows that such interaction torques are taken into account during the planning or control of movement in humans. Two alternative hypotheses …
Jul 01 · Academia

Learning to perceive through equilibration

Our new paper on sensorimotor contingencies is out. It tackles what seems like a paradox in the sensorimotor approach: if understanding is required for perception, how can we learn to perceive something new, something we do not yet understand? We propose a Piagetian solution to this problem, according to which we learn to perceive by re-shaping pre-existing sensorimotor structures (the earliest of which are already present at birth) in coupling with dynamical regularities of the world.

Get it here: Frontiers in Cognition | Learning to perceive in the sensorimotor approach: Piaget’s theory of equilibration interpreted dynamically

May 31 · Academia

A dynamical systems account of sensorimotor contingencies

We have published a new paper on sensorimotor contingencies (SMCs). It provides operational definitions for four different notions of SMCs that have not previously been distinguished. The paper illustrates these using a minimal cognition model and hypothesises about their link to personal-level concepts fundamental to the sensorimotor approach, such as the mastery of sensorimotor skills.

Frontiers in Cognition | A Dynamical Systems Account of Sensorimotor Contingencies

Oct 20 · Academia

Robots perceive the world like humans

Science daily has covered our work on sensorimotor contingencies:

Perceive first, act afterwards. The architecture of most of today’s robots is underpinned by this control strategy. The eSMCs project has set itself the aim of changing the paradigm and generating more dynamic computer models in which action is not a mere consequence of perception but an integral part of the perception process. It is about improving robot behavior by means of perception models closer to those of humans…

Read the full article here: Science Daily: Robots that perceive the world like humans