The role of selective attention and action selection in the development of multiple action capabilities

In this paper we illustrate how the capacity to select the most appropriate actions when handling contexts affording multiple conflicting actions can be solved either through a selective attention strategy (in which the stimuli affording alternative actions are filtered out at the perceptual level through top-down regulation) or at later processing stages through an action selection strategy (through the suppression of the premotor information eliciting alternative actions). By carrying out a series of experiments in which a neuro-robot develops an ability to choose between conflicting actions, we were able to identify the conditions that lead to the development of solutions based on one strategy or another. Overall, the results indicate that the selective attention strategy constitutes the most simple and straightforward mechanism enabling the acquisition of such capacities. Moreover, the characteristics of the adaptive/learning process influence whether the adaptive robot converges towards a selective attention and/or action selection strategy.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Simione L.
Nolfi S.
Publisher: 
Carfax Publishing,, Abingdon (P.O.Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3UE) , Regno Unito
Source: 
Connection science (Print) 26 (2014): 389–402. doi:10.1080/09540091.2014.942597
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Simione L.; Nolfi S./titolo:The role of selective attention and action selection in the development of multiple action capabilities/doi:10.1080/09540091.2014.942597/rivista:Connection science (Print)/anno:2014/pagina_da:389/pagi
Date: 
2014
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/297770
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2014.942597
info:doi:10.1080/09540091.2014.942597
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84918773847&partnerID=q2rCbXpz
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Stefano Nolfi's picture
Real name: