Learning Concepts and Language for a Baby Designer

Abstract

We introduce the “baby designer enterprise” with the objective of learning grounded symbols and rules based on experience, in order to construct the knowledge underlying design systems. In this approach, conceptual categories emerge as abstractions on patterns arising from functional constraints. Eventually, through interaction with language users, these concepts get names, and become true symbols. We demonstrate this approach for symbols related to insertion tasks and tightness of fit. We show how a functional distinction - whether the fit is tight or loose - can be learned in terms of the diameters of the peg and the hole. Further, we observe that the same category distinction can be profiled differently - e.g. as a state (clearance), or as a process (the act of insertion). By having subjects describe their experience in unconstrained speech, and associating words with the known categories for tight and loose, the frequencies of words associated with these can be discriminated. The resulting linguistic labels learned show that for the state profile, the words “tight” and “loose” emerge, and for the action, we get “tight” and “easy”. Once an initial grounded symbol is available, it is argued that knowledge-based systems based on such symbols can be sanctioned by its semantics, as well as its syntax, leading to more flexible usage.