Abstract
This article summarizes the special talk entitled “Beginning of words emerges from caregiver-infant interactions” at 55th Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Society of Stomatognathic Function. First, cognitive developmental robotics (hereafter, CDR) which the speakers have been advocating for more than 15 years was introduced. The key ideas of CDR are “physical embodiment,” and “sociality” which can be seamlessly connected through “development.” Symbol emergence also shares these ideas, especially, in case of speech perception and vocalization since the process from random cooing and babbling to vowel utterances of infants can be regarded as a process of symbol emergence through the interaction with their mothers. Next, computational approaches are shown, especially focusing on mother-infant speech interaction. Not only the learning algorithms on infant (robot) side, but also how mothers interact with their infants, which could be a sort of entrainment, is discussed. Simulations based on a sensori-motor magnet bias and an auto-mirroring one show how these biases affect the process of vowel acquisition of infant. Finally, future issues are shown.
