Situating representational redescriptionin infants' pragmatic knowledge

The Agent-Based Approach: A New Direction for Computational Models of Development

“…Because agents are typically situated or embodied (i.e., sensory inputs and motor outputs), it is perhaps natural that most agentbased modeling work thus far has focused on learning and development in sensorimotor systems. While this characteristic may complement some theoretical approaches (e.g., that early knowledge is grounded in physical experience, Ballard et al, 1997;Johnson, 1987;Keijzer, 1998;Lakoff, 1987;Rutkowska, 1994;Varela et al, 1991), it may also create a difficulty for developmental researchers if the psychological phenomenon being studied is not body-based or conveniently described in a physical form (e.g., development of temperament, gender roles, moral reasoning, etc.). However, the initial success of agent-based models of language acquisition (e.g., Cangelosi & Parisi, 1998;Steels, 1998) suggests that some types of developmental phenomena are not completely reducible to sensorimotor activity, and yet are still plausibly modeled with an agent-based approach.…”