9.916
Agents & Actions
Today’s Lecture
Why do people cooperate?
- Evolved cooperator genes
- Acquire normative beliefs
- Caring about others welfare
How do people cooperate?
- action perception
- mental state attribution
- communication & teaching
Other’s actions are more than spatiotemporal patterns;
they reflect, and predict, internal states
What information about others do we get from vision?
How do we perceive perception?
Role of motor representations in understanding goals?
Agents & Actions
Entity
Object
Morphological
Figure removed
due to copyright
restrictions.
Agent
Stable
Conspecific
Individual identity
Group/Kin
Demographics
Traits
“Recognition”
Invariants
Transient
Actions
Perceptions
Goals
Beliefs
Emotions
Dynamic
Figure removed due
to copyright restrictions.
“Decoding”
Temporal patterns
Context
Agents & Actions
Entity
Agent
Object
Morphological
Stable
Transient
Dynamic
Neonate social preference: morphological and dynamic cues
Contingeny (4 mo)
Face schema
Direct gaze
50
N (N)
SF (N)
Contingeny (4 mo)
Looking time (sec)
100
Biomotion
Direct gaze
Face schema
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare.
Courtesy of National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. Used with
permission. Source: Fig. 2 (right side image) in Simion et. al.
"A Predisposition for Biological motion in the Newborn Baby."
PNAS 105, no. 2 (2008): 809-813. Copyright (c) 2008.
National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A
Farroni et al 2005, Farroni et al 2002, Simion et al 2008, Rochat et al 2002
Agents & Actions
Entity
Object
Morphological
Agent
Stable
Transient
Dynamic
Distinct Neural Mechanisms?
Faces:
FFA - morphology/identity
STS - dynamic Bodies:
EBA - morphology/identity?
STS - dynamic
e.g. Haxby et al 2000
Courtesy Elsevier, Inc., http://www.sciencedirect.com.
Used with permission.
Agents & Actions
Entity
Object
Agent
Stable
How people cooperate
Understanding others
Transient
Perception /
Attention
Goaldirected
More than just spatio-temporal pattern;
Clue to internal states / future events
Agents & Actions
Perception / Attention
Detect that an entity can perceive its environment
- morphology: eyes
- behaviour: contingency on distal environment
Development:
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare.
Exp.
(A)
(B)
Follow gaze?
Contingent
Not
Johnson et al 1998, 2007
Eyes
Not
Exp.
Child
Agents & Actions
Perception / Attention
Detect that an entity can perceive its environment
- morphology: eyes
- behaviour: contingency on distal environment
Neurons code direction of attention:
Figures removed due to copyright restrictions.
Perrett et al 1992
Agents & Actions
Perception / Attention
Detect that an entity can perceive its environment
- morphology: eyes
- behaviour: contingency on distal environment
Neurons code contingency on environment?
R
4.5
3.5
2.5
Correct 1 s
1.5
0.5
Figures by MIT OpenCourseWare.
-0.5
Figure removed due to copyright restrictions.
Pelphrey et al 2003, 2005
-3
-1.5
0
1.5
3
4.5 6 7.5 9
Time (in seconds)
10.5 12
13.5 15 16.5
-1.5
Change in MR Signal Intensity
Incorrect 1 s
Agents & Actions
Goal-directed
Role of 1st-person experience / motor representations?
pSTS
\
Premotor
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare.
Agents & Actions
Goal-directed
Role of 1st-person experience / motor representations?
Figure removed due to copyright restrictions.
Courtesy Elsevier, Inc.,
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Used with permission.
Kohler et al 2002, Sebanz et al 2003
Courtesy Elsevier, Inc., http://www.sciencedirect.com.
Used with permission.
Agents & Actions
Goal-directed
Role of 1st-person experience / motor representations?
200s play with
velcro mittens
60
45
30
15
Mitten First
New Path
Courtesy Elsevier, Inc.,
http://www.sciencedirect.com.
Used with permission.
Sommerville,Woodward, Needham 2005
Control
0
New Goal
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare.
Motor
experience
necessary for
perceiving goaldirected action?
Agents & Actions
Goal-directed
Role of 1st-person experience / motor representations?
Action
30
Figures by MIT OpenCourseWare.
24
18
12
6
12 m.o.
9 m.o.
New Path
Gergely & Csibra 1997, 1999, 2007
0
Same Path
+ 6 m.o.
Motor
experience
NOT necessary
for perceiving
goal-directed
action?
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu
9.916 Special Topics: Social Animals
Fall 2009
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