Biohistory Jyournal, Summer, 2003

Research: Index > The evolution and development of mind appeared from an examination of people, apes, and robots

Time in living creatures The evolution and development of mind appeared from an examination of people, apes, and robots

Shoji Itakura, Kyoto University Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Literature

An infant follows its mother's gaze from the moment it is born. At one year of age, it begins to notice the intent of others. Chimpanzees also direct their gaze in the direction in which others are paying attention, but it is not understood if they act based on assumptions about another's psychological state.     What process do people go through before their minds are created? How do people view the mind? We will analyze the development of an individual's mind in a variety of species, and consider the nature of mind based on a time axis of evolution and development. Comparative cognitive development science is a new field.

We will conduct a comparison of the development of human and non-human infants. Then, we will conduct joint research with robotics engineers, and apply to robots the findings gained from research into chimpanzees and humans. We will then examine the validity of our theory.

Experiments with human children for mistaken belief topics using Robovie

The experiment shows that most five- and six-year-old children will answer the blue box. The mistaken belief topic evaluates whether the subject child has a theory of mind for understanding the psychological state of others, such as belief or intent. The five- or six-year-old child attributes mistaken belief to Robovie, and answers by making a quick supposition about the robot's mind. When answering the question, "What is the robot thinking?"--which includes a psychological verb--the child becomes confused and answers at random.

[ Shoji Itakura ]     Born in 1959. A research fellow of JSPS. Completed a Ph.D. specializing in primates at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Science. Has studied at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University in the United States, and the Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences. He is currently an associate professor at the Kyoto University Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters. Itakura is seeking new methodologies in the field of comparative cognition development science through joint research with the ATR Intelligent Robotics Communication Laboratories.

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