The next Doctoral Research Seminar is titled "Exploring Embodied Cognition through Cognitive Neurorobotics: Experimental Studies Using the Free Energy Principle" by Prof. Dr. Jun Tani, Cognitive Neurorobotics Research Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST).

The aim of this research is to investigate the mechanisms underlying embodied cognition, with a particular focus on the top-down and bottom-up interactions between an organism and its environment. We developed a variational RNN model based on the free energy principle and applied it to a series of robotics experiments, using predictive coding and active inference frameworks. Our results demonstrate that the estimated precision in the top-down prediction develops differently depending on a meta-parameter known as the meta-prior, w. A robot trained with a larger w tends to exhibit stronger top-down intention, while a robot trained with a smaller w exhibits weaker top-down intention and tends to follow the bottom-up sensation more closely. We discuss how the precision structure developed could affect embodied cognitive processes in interactions with physical objects and other agents in social cognition. Additionally, we speculate on the potential for online adaptation of the meta-prior and its impact on embodied cognition.

May 22nd, 2023, 10:30 am - 11:30 am in room 2026, Karlstr. 45.