1. Developmental Psychology
Study of psychological changes that occur in human beings as they age
Originally concerned with infants and children
Also includes adolescence and more recently, Aging
Studies change across a broad range of topics
Motor skills
Problem solving abilities
Conceptual understanding
Acquisition of language
Moral understanding
Identity formation

2. Developmental Psychology
Key questions
Do children think in a different way to adults
Or do they simply lack the experience of adults?
Is development gradual - accumulation of knowledge
Or does it take big jumps - step from one way of thinking to another?
Are children born with innate knowledge
Or do they figure things out through experience?
Is development driven by the social context
Or by something inside each child?

3. Developmental Psychology
A number of areas can be studied in Developmental Psychology
Example: educational psychology, social psychology
We focus on Cognitive Development (We are cognitivists)
Focus on Piaget’s theory
Why is it interesting for AI?
As early as 1950 Turing proposed
Build a child AI, rather than an adult
Teach it what it needs to know
Why build a child?
Easier than adult because he knows less

4. Jean Piaget Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896
Took an early interest in nature, especially the collecting of shells
Became interested in Biological Adaptation
…Led to interest in human intelligence and knowledge surely the highest form of biological adaptation

5. What Is It About? Genetic Epistemology
Genetic doesn’t mean Genetic Algorithm
Genetic means studying the origin
Where it comes from
Epistemology means “theory of knowledge”
So Genetic Epistemology is
A theory of where knowledge comes from

6. Highest form of biological adaptation
What Is It About?
Genetic Epistemology
Highest form of biological adaptation

7. Piaget’s Observations
The first thing Piaget noticed:
Children’s way of thinking is really different to adults
I run through Piaget’s stages
Observations of his own children

8. Q A Why does a helium balloon go up?
Because there’s a gas inside, when there’s a lot of gas it’s heavy, it’s very strong and then it flies.

9. Q Q Q Why does a large boat float?
Why does a small pebble sink to the bottom?
But a small chip of wood floats… Q
Why does a large piece of wood float?

10. Children’s way of thinking is really different to adults
Piaget’s Theory
Piaget noticed:
Children’s way of thinking is really different to adults
But he also noticed something in common
When they have a contradiction…
Gradually they change their world model
Come up with a new way to explain what they see
They are creative in conjecturing new models
Just like a scientist discovering laws of physics
Key point: Children CONSTRUCT their own model of the world.
Intelligence is about having a function that can
Take on board new data
Construct a theory of the world which fits the data
I run through Piaget’s stages
Observations of his own children

11. “Just as the main functions of the living being are identical in all organisms but correspond to organs which are very different in different groups, so also between the child and the adult a continuous creation of varied structures may be observed although the main functions of thought remain constant.”
Piaget

12. Piaget’s Theory – How It Works
Cognitive structures
Continuous creation
Cognitive functions
Organise + Adapt
Invariant – nucleus in infant
Constructivism
“main functions of living being identical in all organisms but organs different also between child adult varied structures main functions of thought constant.”

13. Piaget’s Observations
The progress of development
Variable ages + much overlap old habits reappear
Show how little is known initially
Gain insight into functions used
I run through Piaget’s stages
Observations of his own children

14. In the beginning: Reflex ( 0  1 months )
Sucking and grasping reflexes
Respond to stimuli
For play/practise
Reflex preserves itself by repeating
Schema: S-R-S
Stimulus-Response-Stimulus
Suck whenever something touches mouth
Search - Inbuilt knowledge turn to left – expt on hearing – 2 minutes
Accom to thumbsuck, to grab
Sensations change in response to actions, but no idea of independent existence of world

15. In the beginning: Reflex ( 0  1 months )
Sucking and grasping reflexes
Respond to stimuli
For play/practise
Reflex preserves itself by repeating
Development
Search improves
Accommodates to new objects
Discerns stimuli for special modes
Sign recognition improves
Suck whenever something touches mouth
Search - Inbuilt knowledge turn to left – expt on hearing – 2 minutes
Accom to thumbsuck, to grab
Sensations change in response to actions, but no idea of independent existence of world

16. Circular Reactions ( 1  4 months )
Thumb sucking
Grasping:
1. Reflex, with interest
2. Grab object and suck hand
3. Carry object to mouth
4. Grab object when in view
Suddenly realise hand and vision are in the same world
5. Intentional motion of hand
Throwing hands touches mouth
3. (but really same scheme as thumb sucking because sucks on hand or obj at start)
when hand passes by chance in view holds it there
now accoms hand to glance and studies objects
4. first time hand grasps while in view – surprise, does more grasping in view
Suddenly realise hand and vision are in the same world
Doesn’t seem to know innately that these are in the same world
simultaneous view of hand and obj starts grab, not otherwise
5.what can be seen is grasped, what can be grasped is looked for
This is Knowledge about the world
Not maturational happens at quite different rates depending on what he did with them, or what they discovered by chance

17. Repeating Discoveries ( 4  8 months )
Repeat interesting spectacle
Interrupted grabbing
Reconstruct whole from visible part
But does not retrieve if completely hidden
Remove obstacles to perception
Objects have no other side
Image at disposal of action
Bridge: actions dissociated from end result
Shakes body to shake dolls; pulls string to shake rattle
Doesn’t understand relation – magic is tried
thinks his own actions are the only possible causes - egocentric
But he does learn actions that do work and these are capturing knowledge about the world because he has an expectation that a certain action should produce a certain result
Develops actions used to make interesting things last
mouthing,looking,shaking,banging,grasping applied indiscrim. to any object
New object not novel, just treated like any other object to apply actions to
it’s intelligent because he rediscovers the movements needed/but it’s not intelligent because the solution is discovered before the desire to obtain it/real intelligence works the other way
Interrupt grab: can play box;turn look; back to box->knowledge about the world -> objects are permanent
global permanence tied to action, obj not permanent in a different context
Reconstruct: recognises object by a bit of it
raises cloth if beak sticks out cries if sees bit of bottle, stops if sees none
well able to turn the bottle even if he sees a teeny bit of nipple (almost 180degree turn), but if he sees none he makes no attempt, even after extensive presentation of bottle in orientations he has understood nothing Remove: doesn’t get relation of screen to obj; get relation of screen to face
shakes and duck falls down, but hid in fold; shakes and looks up top again
Obj goes a to b; Expects it to reappear at a
searches at exact point of departure, thinks obj is extension of movement, so if not found in exact extension of accomodation, no hope to find
image at disposal of action, swings box;drops;looks in hand;swings empty hand;looks in hand
but still progress from 1 where obj was not dist from results of reflex action
stage3 still like stage1 because centred on child, next stage will be centred on objects
Exploring objects

18. Intelligent Coordination ( 8  12 months )
Explore object properties
Chain actions to achieve goal
Intention; find means; apply actions
Objects have other side
Search for vanished objects
A not B error
Failure to modify action
Bridge: dropping objects
here he (accidentally at first) learns to push away a blocking object
lifts a cushion to get thing – derived from obstacle removing
unlike earlier stage where he just repeated pulling string to shake rattle for example, he now knows how means are connected to the goal and can exactly adjust means to goal
Actions applied to new things even empty space
understand the object
interested in change in shape resulting from different head posns
capable of turning bottle, also leans sideways to see teat
Opinion that exists, generally that objects have other sides
active search for vanished objects – opinion that it must be somewhere does a not b/often even if searches b if it’s too far in he searches a again
he drops the swan while she’s watching, she watches it fall, sees it go out of view and then goes back and searches B
Doesn’t get that it can’t be there if it went someplace else
Behaviour Repeats again and again
Toddler drops ball – when problem gets difficult more primitive behaviours reappear
Same type of thing with people
J downstairs+up in room godfather left in automobile+his room
Like we can experience in a dream world when our conscious mind is absent
Rules that say that a person can’t be in two places are not in force
failures of stage 4: unable to modify action when outcome not achieved, instead starts afresh with new action/ can’t gradually approximate a demo scheme
Bridge: dropping, experimenting with the trajectory

19. Experimentation ( 12  18 months )
Adjust actions using feedback
Stick
Support
Really trying to understand the world
Succeeds on A not B
Fails covert displacements
Limited construction of reality
Adjust: Tries to pull wooden rooster toy through bars
Learns the stick here with groping
Learns support
Understand – not just success - repetition,
Experiment not just to repeat unexpected result but to create a new one
no limit to probs that can be solved because will experiment with new schema
for first time child initiates novelty
(some kind of creativity here)
Fails: put in open box, dump out under cloth
doesn’t know gravity (OI270) puts cushion up, throws things down, doesn’t know what to expect when pushing thing off edge
experimentation is limited to objects as they appear, they are not elaborated mentally
mental constructions transforming the object as it appears to be into the object as it is
presses ring to stick to put it on: optical contact, does not elaborate torus of ring, does not anticipate impenetrability of solid objects
Knows they’re solid to his hand, but doesn’t know they’re solid to each other
Construction of Reality – saw some at stage 4 with objects having other side
Kids four wheel car is example of opinion/reality construction, made their own abstraction of what they think is important
Mountain

20. Representation ( 18  24 months )
Planning becomes covert
Combining action sequences
Experimentation
Succeeds in covert displacements
Imitation to represent
Difficulty  old magic forms reappear
Planning : have built a world model
Toy through bars
Moves paint from door’s path
Makes detour around sofa to get ball
Succeeds: if very difficult, searches hard, assumes permanence of object where before he might give up, willing to accept it’s gone
a lot of stage 6 stuff, looks intelligent, but he really knew all he needed already
Jump to representation stage doesn’t mean anything new learnt, it’s a development in the way the knowledge learned is used
Imitation:mouth
Difficulty:use force to put ring in box, blink eyes to turn light

21. Q A Preoperational (2-7) Play and Imitation Fails seriation tasks
Does not know conservation
Language - preconcepts
Transduction instead of induction/deduction Q
Piaget has written a lot about all that happens after infancy, but I’ll just skim through very quickly
preconcepts:does not assign word to one class of objects but to a number of sim actions/experiences
Language: fan is north wind
Transduction
Stone sinks because it’s strong and can get to the bottom
Wood stays up because it’s strong so it can float
No need for consistency
Preconcepts – you think they’re the same but they’re not
Why does a helium balloon go up? A
Because there’s a gas inside, when there’s a lot of gas it’s heavy, it’s very strong and then it flies.

22. Concrete Operational (7-11) Formal Operational (11+)
Knows conservation
Can manipulate concrete objects mentally
Cannot manipulate abstract relations
Edith fairer Lily; Edith darker Susan
Cannot accept assumptions
Can: seriation
Cannot: edith fairer lily, edith darker susan
Abstract: similar to earlier stage order concrete objects
Could use the same mental machinery, many people represent the problem to themselves spatially
Here moving around the relation as though it were a physical object
able to accept assumption for sake of argument;
so he’s now able to test a hypothesis without believing it
hold in hypothetical mental space, aware it’s hypo
This building of the mental space for hypotheses seems similar to the mental space used to plan building with concrete objects
Set aside a space in mind for objects that are in a different layout to real world
Formal Operational (11+)
Can manipulate abstract relations
Can entertain non-concrete hypotheses

23. General Themes Incremental construction Repeating work on a new plane
Implicit representation of concepts
Only pay attention to what makes sense
Development driven by conflict
Implicit - Concepts are spread in many special case rules, like gravity, like vyg words, we think they’re the same, might be a long time before they’re untangled, must copy this, if we jump straight missing out, definitely how we solve a new problem, little special case hypotheses first
More novelty as gets older – more patterns have been found relative to which things make sense
Only pay attention to what makes sense, or what can be understood in terms of things that make sense
As a relation among things that already make sense
Paradoxical
But still true in adult
The more you know – the more things are interesting
Learn chinese, every time see pay attention where before you would have ignored it
Representation should be implicit in many special case hypotheses
a constant theme in piaget’s work is repeating same work on new plane
Special case stuff still continuing – Subbotsky 40% adults thought experimenter could bring about a material change in the object in the box with his mental powers

24. “Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself.”
Piaget

25. Commonsense is Not Intelligence
Not sufficient
Structure not function
Not necessary
Function can build structure
I said that in Piaget’s Structure/Function division most AI work is on the structures and not much on the functions
Commonsense ok for short term – engineer system to do a specific task
Quickest way – but system will only do that specific task and never go beyond it
Commonsense doesn’t find new patterns, it is collections of patterns already found
Not necessary – build program to do task, if you go on to make it intelligent you must give capability to build own models
And if that’s achieved then there was no point in all the commonsense
For long term building artificial intelligence it’s a waste of time

26. Comparison with Darwin
Darwin looked at all the various forms of life and asked
where did they come from?
He saw a common mechanism…
which could have given rise to all the varieties of life we see today.
Many complex forms of life…
could evolve out of very simple forms of life
by a relatively simple mechanism
Piaget looked at all the various forms of mental activity
in humans of all ages
saw a common mechanism which could have given rise to them all
Complexities of adult human mind…
could grow out simple forms in infant’s mind
a relatively simple set of innate structures and functions.
Darwin was concerned with the origin of species
Piaget was concerned with the origin of mind

27. Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
Some people contradict Piaget’s theory
But beware! They lie!
Considerable controversy in the field
Results to corroborate Piaget’s theory
And results to contradict his theory
And results to contradict the contradictions
And …
Psychology has a lot of conflicting results
A science in its infancy, just over 100 years old
(Compare Physics)

28. Course Overview Looking at the Science
What is AI?
What are the Major Challenges?
What are the Main Techniques?
Where are we failing, and why?
Step back and look at the Science
Step back and look at the History of AI
What are the Major Schools of Thought?
What of the Future?
Looking at the Science
Engineering vs. Science
Introduction to Cognitive Science
Cognitive Psychology 1
Cognitive Psychology 2
Cognitive Development
Linguistics
Neuroscience
Philosophy
What are we trying to do
How do we do it
A lot of people would start with the history – but it’s a bit meaningless at first