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Transfer or no transfer: the key role of learning specificity

conference contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 08:53 authored by Luc BerthouzeLuc Berthouze
During development, infants garner knowledge about their environment and their own body through explorative behaviours mediated by changing motilities. A key question regards infants ability to transfer knowledge between these various motilities. There is currently little consensus in the literature. In depth perception studies, for example, Adolph showed that knowledge amassed while sitting does not appear to transfer to crawling, and that information collected during crawling does not transfer to walking. In contrast, Witherington and colleagues reported findings suggesting that there is transfer from crawling to walking. Here, we attempt to reconcile the two findings by suggest- ing, with a simulation, that a key experimental difference could explain the disparity between these studies. The results suggest that an infant lacking transfer between motilities, as suggested by Adolph, can behave in ways consistent with the findings of Witherington and colleagues, and an empirical prediction is derived that could be tested in real experiments. This study highlights the potential importance of learning specificity in development, a concept that could have important implications for developmental robotics.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics

Publisher

Lund University Cognitive Studies

Volume

149

Pages

8.0

Event name

10th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics

Event location

Örenäs Slott, Sweden

Event type

conference

Event date

5-7 November 2010

ISBN

978919773809

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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