CORAL GABLES, FL (October 28, 2010)?To help unravel the
mysteries of human cognitive development and reach new the
frontiers in robotics, University of Miami (UM) developmental
psychologists and computer scientists from the University of
California in San Diego (UC San Diego) are studying infant-
mother interactions and working to implement their findings in a
baby robot capable of learning social skills. The first phase of
the project was studying face-to-face interactions between
mother and child, to learn how predictable early communication
is, and to understand what babies need to act intentionally. The
findings are published in the current issue of the journal
Neural Networks in a study titled "Applying machine learning to
infant interaction: The development is in the details." The
scientists examined 13 mothers and babies between 1 and 6 months
of age, while they played during five minute intervals weekly.
There were approximately 14 sessions per dyad. The laboratory
sessions were videotaped and the rese