Dreaming of electric sheep? Exploring the functions of dream-like mechanisms in the development of mental imagery simulations

Authors:
Henrik Svensson;Serge Thill;Tom Ziemke
Affiliations:
Interaction Laboratory, Informatics Research Centre, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden;Interaction Laboratory, Informatics Research Centre, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden;Interaction Laboratory, Informatics Research Centre, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden
Venue:
Adaptive Behavior - Animals, Animats, Software Agents, Robots, Adaptive Systems
Year:
2013

Citing 14
Cited 0

Intelligence without representation

Artificial Intelligence
Image and brain: the resolution of the imagery debate

Image and brain: the resolution of the imagery debate
From egocentric to allocentric spatial behavior: a computational model of spatial development

Adaptive Behavior - Special issue on biologically inspired models of navigation
Robots and representations

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior on From animals to animats 5
Generative character of perception: a neural architecture for sensorimotor anticipation

Neural Networks - Special issue on organisation of computation in brain-like systems
Learning to perceive the world as articulated: an approach for hierarchical learning in sensory-motor systems

Neural Networks - Special issue on organisation of computation in brain-like systems
Real-time computing without stable states: a new framework for neural computation based on perturbations

Neural Computation
Perception through visuomotor anticipation in a mobile robot

Neural Networks
A connectionist model may shed light on neural mechanisms for visually guided reaching

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroscientific implications for situated and embodied artificial intelligence

Connection Science
Architectures for functional imagination

Neurocomputing
Predictive models in the brain

Connection Science
Internal simulation of perception: a minimal neuro-robotic model

Neurocomputing
Model-based learning for mobile robot navigation from the dynamicalsystems perspective

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

According to the simulation hypothesis, mental imagery can be explained in terms of predictive chains of simulated perceptions and actions, i.e., perceptions and actions are reactivated internally by our nervous system to be used in mental imagery and other cognitive phenomena. Our previous research shows that it is possible but not trivial to develop simulations in robots based on the simulation hypothesis. While there are several previous approaches to modelling mental imagery and related cognitive abilities, the origin of such internal simulations has hardly been addressed. The inception of simulation (InSim) hypothesis suggests that dreaming has a function in the development of simulations by forming associations between experienced, non-experienced but realistic, and even unrealistic perceptions. Here, we therefore develop an experimental set-up based on a simple simulated robot to test whether such dream-like mechanisms can be used to instruct research into the development of simulations and mental imagery-like abilities. Specifically, the hypothesis is that 'dreams' informing the construction of simulations lead to faster development of good simulations during waking behaviour. The paper presents initial results in favour of the hypothesis.