The Role of Intention in Cognitive Robotics

We argue that the development of robots that can interact effectively with people requires a special focus on building systems that can perceive and comprehend intentions in other agents. Such a capability is a prerequisite for all pro-social behaviour and in particular underpins the ability to engage in instrumental helping and mutual collaboration. We explore the prospective and intentional nature of action, highlighting the importance of joint action, shared goals, shared intentions, and joint attention in facilitating social interaction between two or more cognitive agents. We discuss the link between reading intentions and theory of mind, noting the role played by internal simulation, especially when inferring higher-level action-focussed intentions. Finally, we highlight that pro-social behaviour in humans is the result of a developmental process and we note the implications of this for the challenge of creating cognitive robots that can read intentions.

[1]  M. Tomasello,et al.  Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition , 2005, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[2]  C. Von Hofsten.  An action perspective on motor development. , 2004, Trends in cognitive sciences.

[3]  A. Meltzoff,et al.  Explaining Facial Imitation: A Theoretical Model. , 1997, Early development & parenting.

[4]  M. Iacoboni.  Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. , 2009, Annual review of psychology.

[5]  G. Butterworth,et al.  What minds have in common is space : Spatial mechanisms serving joint visual attention in infancy , 1991 .

[6]  Elisabeth Pacherie,et al.  The Phenomenology of Joint Action: Self-Agency vs. Joint-Agency , 2012 .

[7]  A. Meltzoff.  Understanding the Intentions of Others: Re-Enactment of Intended Acts by 18-Month-Old Children. , 1995, Developmental psychology.

[8]  Michael E. Bratman,et al.  Shared Cooperative Activity , 1991 .

[9]  D. Vernon.  Artificial Cognitive Systems: A Primer , 2014 .

[10]  M. Tomasello,et al.  Shared intentionality. , 2007, Developmental science.

[11]  Elisabeth Pacherie,et al.  Intentional joint agency: shared intention lite , 2013, Synthese.

[12]  David Vernon,et al.  A Roadmap for Cognitive Development in Humanoid Robots , 2011, Cognitive Systems Monographs.

[13]  A. Meltzoff,et al.  Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates , 1977, Science.

[14]  Michael E. Bratman.  Intention and personal policies , 1988 .

[15]  Peter Ford Dominey,et al.  The basis of shared intentions in human and robot cognition , 2011 .

[16]  Estela Bicho,et al.  The power of prediction: Robots that read intentions , 2012, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[17]  M. Tomasello,et al.  The roots of human altruism. , 2009, British journal of psychology.

[18]  Natalie Sebanz,et al.  Prediction in Joint Action: What, When, and Where , 2009, Top. Cogn. Sci..

[19]  Olga Kochukhova,et al.  Goal anticipation during action observation is influenced by synonymous action capabilities, a puzzling developmental study , 2010, Experimental Brain Research.

[20]  F. Heider,et al.  An experimental study of apparent behavior , 1944 .

[21]  E. Pacherie.  The phenomenology of action: A conceptual framework , 2008, Cognition.

[22]  H. Bekkering,et al.  Hierarchy of Idea-Guided Action and Perception-Guided Movement , 2012, Front. Psychology.

[23]  M. Pavlova.  Biological motion processing as a hallmark of social cognition. , 2012, Cerebral cortex.

[24]  Gal A. Kaminka,et al.  Towards computational models of intention detection and intention prediction , 2014, Cognitive Systems Research.

[25]  Harold Bekkering,et al.  Human Neuroscience , 2022 .

[26]  C. Hofsten,et al.  Infants predict other people's action goals , 2006, Nature Neuroscience.

[27]  J. Decety,et al.  From the perception of action to the understanding of intention , 2001, Nature reviews. Neuroscience.

[28]  F. Kaplan,et al.  The challenges of joint attention , 2006 .

[29]  Raymond H. Cuijpers,et al.  Joint Action: Neurocognitive Mechanisms Supporting Human Interaction , 2009, Top. Cogn. Sci..

[30]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Grasping objects and grasping action meanings: the dual role of monkey rostroventral premotor cortex (area F5). , 1998, Novartis Foundation symposium.

[31]  Stephen A. Butterfill,et al.  Joint action and development , 2012 .

[32]  A. Meltzoff.  Elements of a developmental theory of imitation , 2002 .

[33]  A. Meltzoff,et al.  What imitation tells us about social cognition: a rapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. , 2003, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[34]  J. Lindblom.  Embodied Social Cognition , 2015 .

[35]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  The mirror-neuron system. , 2004, Annual review of neuroscience.

[36]  C. Frith.  Social cognition , 2008, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[37]  F. Simion,et al.  A predisposition for biological motion in the newborn baby , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[38]  Paul L. Harris,et al.  Children's understanding of emotion , 1989 .

[39]  Yiannis Demiris,et al.  Prediction of intent in robotics and multi-agent systems , 2007, Cognitive Processing.

[40]  Armin Stock,et al.  A short history of ideo-motor action , 2004, Psychological research.