Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to parallel the development of imitation in a human infant and in an autonomous robot. To draw a valid comparison between the two systems – namely the infant and the robot – it is necessary to insure that their respective architectures present sufficient basic similarities. The present chapter will thus start with a description of the main features that enable a human neonate and the autonomous robot designed by the ETIS group to develop a capacity to imitate. Note that the robot is not implemented to imitate and that imitation will develop spontaneously as a result of the capacity of the robot to couple perception and action together with an imprecision in its visual perception.

Within the framework of a bottom-up perspective, we propose in the second part of the chapter to consider the development of imitation as a continuous phenomenon throughout development. Consequently, we will devote the third part of the chapter to show how basic perception–action coupling may not only account for the development of learning but also for the development of the communicative function of imitation. Exploring the communicative function of imitation is a new topic for roboticists, who classically consider imitation as a way to learn more rapidly relevant interactions within a novel environment. A model of synchronization of rhythm between two systems describes the first steps toward a communicative use of imitation.

Introduction

Two options in developmental studies: search for precursors or search for adaptive behaviors

Early imitation is currently a major topic for developmentalists. They investigate its developmental role and elaborate models concerning the processes through which imitation may serve as a determinant building block for later cognitive and social development. Piaget (1945) consecrated this tradition, focusing on deferred imitation as a predictor of representational capacities. Recently, Meltzoff and Gopnik (1993) proposed the fascinating hypothesis that early imitation provides the means to elaborate human properties which will lead to a theory of the human mind. They see imitation as a machine to extract similarities, a like-me mechanism through which a neonate is supposed to draw equivalences between what she sees and what she does and vice versa, thus forming the concept of like-me entities.

While the predictive power of emerging imitative capacities is emphasized, and the cascading effect of their development is modeled, little attention is given to the functional use of these capacities by the developing child, in her everyday life. This information is crucial because the functional use of a behavior informs us about main developmental pathways, and especially about how the infant builds herself. Moreover, changes in functional use and transitory functional use of behaviors stress the nonlinear aspect of epigenesis, the flexibility of brain development and may be of help to understand the link between early behaviors of modern infants and ancestral behaviors of the human species in an evolutionary perspective.