Dynamic field theory and embodied communication

Yulia Sandamirskaya

Gregor Schöner

pp. 260-278

in: Ipke Wachsmuth, Günther Knoblich (eds), Modeling communication with robots and virtual humans, Berlin, Springer, 2008

Abstract

Dynamical Field Theory is a neurally based approach to embodied and situated cognition, in which information is represented in continuous activation fields defined over metric spaces. The temporal evolution of activation patterns under the influence of inputs and neuronal interaction is described by a dynamical system, whose stable states, localized peaks of activation, are the units of representation. This approach has been successfully used to capture many elementary forms of cognition. Communication poses the new challenge of understanding how different modalities can be integrated in a continuously unfolding communicative process. In this chapter we give a brief introduction to Dynamical Field Theory in embodied cognition, and discuss extensions of its ideas to embodied communication. We sketch a highly simplified example of how sequence generation may occur in dynamical fields. We apply these concepts to a specific exemplary problem in embodied communication, turn taking, the temporal structure of which we capture in a simple model.