Developing Minds

In 1950, Alan Turing asked "Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's?" Today, over 70 years later, constructing a computer program that can learn like a child and that develops a human-like general intelligence is still considered a grand, if not the ultimate, challenge for artificial intelligence (AI). An interdisciplinary community of scientists from AI, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Engineering, and Neuroscience are tackling this grand challenge. In the Developing Minds global lecture series we showcase the progress being made. It is organized by the Developmental AI Task Force of the IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive and Developmental Systems of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. See also: IEEE Int. Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (TCDS).

Twitter: @Dev_Minds

Next Event

Thursday, April 18, 2024

10:00 am EST (Eastern Daylight Time, US)

14:00 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time)

16:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time)

23:00 JST (Japan Standard Time)

Sabine Hunnius

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands

"Early cognitive development: Five lessons from infant learning"

Abstract

Young children develop at a breath-taking rate. Within just a few years, they change from a helpless newborn into a school-ready child who has all the abilities and skills needed to start formal education. In my talk, I will discuss five fundamental principles of infant learning to better comprehend how such rapid cognitive development is at all possible.

Firstly, infants come into this world equipped to learn. From early on, they are sensitive to statistical information in their environment and readily detect and retain statistical structures they observe. Secondly, infants use this information to build predictive models of the world. Moreover, they are able to continuously and flexibly update these models in light of new information. Thirdly, infant learning can be so fast and effective, as it is supported by early-existing attentional biases. Infants allocate attention to and preferably explore stimuli that are informative. Fourthly, adult interaction partners play a crucial role in creating ideal learning opportunities for infants by skillfully adapting their behavior to the infants' attentional preferences and learning capabilities. Lastly, infants' learning is influenced by the development of their bodies and brains, which modifies how they engage with their environment. As such, their early learning changes the way they learn later, providing them with new learning experiences. 

In summary, the intricate interplay of infants' basic learning mechanisms, attentional and exploration biases, and social exchanges gives rise to the astonishing developmental changes observed in early childhood.


Short Bio

Sabine Hunnius is Director of the Baby & Child Research Center in Nijmegen and Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University. Her research focuses on early cognitive and social-cognitive development. Her aim is to understand the initial makeup of the human mind and the information processing and learning mechanisms infants are equipped with. Ultimately, she strives to understand the complex interconnection between infants' learning mechanisms and their social interactions, aiming to gain insight into the fundamental processes underlying early childhood development.

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Organizers

Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies

University of Tokyo

UT Austin