Co-development of information transfer within and between infant and caregiver

Abstract

This paper presents a computational approach to measuring information transfer in infant-caregiver interaction. It is supposed that both an infant and a caregiver mutually shape the interaction by sending various signals to each other, of which the dynamic structure changes according to the infant's age. We investigated such developmental change both in infants and caregivers by measuring transfer entropy within and between their body movements. Our analysis demonstrated that infants significantly improve their body coordination and social contingency between 6 to 13 months of age. Their gaze, for example, start responding to caregivers' gaze, which indicates the development of joint attention. The coordination between infants' two hands also drastically improves as they grow. Of particular interest is that such development in infants elicits caregivers' adaptation. Caregivers change their social responses and body coordination to a more sophisticated manner in order to further facilitate infant development. Our approach is the first study to quantitatively verify the "co-development" of infants and caregivers, which appears as increases in information transfer within and between their behaviors.

Video Based Children's Social Behavior Classification in Peer-Play Scenarios

“…There are also some studies on infants' behavior analysis [16][5] [15]. In these studies, the motion of infants and adults (parents or caregiver) are usually tracked and detected by sensors.…”

“…In these studies, the motion of infants and adults (parents or caregiver) are usually tracked and detected by sensors. The information flow within and between their body movements are measured by transfer entropy [5] [15], based on which the interaction exchange and interaction between infants and parents can be computed.…”

“…In recent years, many methods have been proposed to analyze human behavior automatically [8] [19] [4] and there are an increasing number of studies focused on computational analysis of infants' behavior [16][5] [15].…”

Predictive learning with uncertainty estimation for modeling infants' cognitive development with caregivers: A neurorobotics experiment

“…Fukuyama et al [9] demonstrated the reverse effect in which caregivers' motionese is dynamically affected by infants' actions. Nagai et al [10] revealed the co-development of caregivers and infants by measuring information transfer in their dynamic interactions. In the context of others' action observation, infants can predict the goals of perceived actions [11].…”

Cognitive Neuroscience Robotics A

“…The latter two values represent body coordination Analysis of the dynamical structure of infant-caregiver interaction (Adapted fromNagai et al 2012). Higher values of T M j !m i and/or T m i !M j indicate more contingency between the infant and the caregiver.…”