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Anticipatory Synchronization in Humans and Artificial Agents

Washburn, Auriel
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043340

Abstract Details

2016, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Psychology.
Recent work investigating the dynamics of coupled physical systems with uni-directional slave-master coupling dynamics has demonstrated that the incorporation of delayed feedback within the slave system allows it to achieve anticipation of chaotic master system behavior. This counterintuitive phenomenon of self-organized anticipatory synchronization has been observed for a variety of systems including coupled electrical circuits, laser semi-conductors, and neurons. Most recently research has shown that human individuals are capable of exhibiting the same kind of aperiodic anticipation in the context of interpersonal interaction following the introduction of perceptual-motor feedback delays. Understanding such human behavior as defined by the same universal dynamical laws as other physical systems provides a more parsimonious explanation for how humans are able to maintain complex coordination given the existence of inherent neural and perceptual-motor delays than previously proposed accounts, which depend on the existence of internal models and neural simulation processes. This perspective also provides a novel opportunity to inform the advancement of human robotic interaction; through an in-depth understanding of anticipatory synchronization in humans and other physical systems it should be possible to develop adaptive artificial agents defined by systems of low-dimensional dynamical equations capable of coordinating with complex human behavior in real time. The goal of the current project was to gain further information about human anticipatory synchronization in order to facilitate the design, development and testing of an artificial agent intended to exhibit self-organized anticipation during interaction with a human co-actor. In each of three initial studies, a participant was asked to coordinate with the continuous arm movements of a robot avatar seen via a virtual reality headset. The participant’s own virtual arm movements reflected the behavioral outcomes of their actions at one of several short temporal delays (between 25 and 450 ms). Short-term coordination analyses of maximum cross-correlation and instantaneous relative phase were used to evaluate the occurrence of anticipatory synchronization. An analysis of complexity matching, or more long-term behavioral similarity, was also conducted to provide additional information about the coordinative dynamics associated with anticipatory synchronization. Collectively these studies demonstrated that 1) slower movement supports greater frequency of leading behavior than faster movement, 2) human perceptual-motor anticipatory synchronization of aperiodic behaviors can be achieved for one-dimensional movements as has previously been seen for two-dimensional behavior, and 3) anticipation and global movement coordination can occur for a range of bi-directional master-slave coupling strengths. A fourth and final study consisted of three model validation tests meant to establish whether an artificial agent system composed of a harmonic spring oscillator coupled to a human co-actor through a function that continuously minimizes differences between the agent’s past behavior and the current behavior of the human actor could achieve anticipation. This study confirmed the agent’s ability to exhibit self-organized anticipatory synchronization with respect to ongoing aperiodic human behavior. This project is the first to apply the expanding understanding of anticipatory synchronization in physical systems to research in human robotic interaction in the interest of producing technically realizable artificial agents capable of adaptively anticipating complex human behavior.
Michael Richardson, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Rachel Kallen, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kevin Shockley, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
128 p.
Psychology
Human Robotic Interaction; Behavioral Anticipation; Dynamical Systems; Perceptual-Motor Coordination; Interpersonal Interaction; Artificial Agents

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Washburn, A. (2016). Anticipatory Synchronization in Humans and Artificial Agents [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043340

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Washburn, Auriel. Anticipatory Synchronization in Humans and Artificial Agents. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043340.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Washburn, Auriel. "Anticipatory Synchronization in Humans and Artificial Agents." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043340

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1470043340
267
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.