Toddlers Learn Like Robots, Study Says

Since there have been toddlers, it’s been a given that small children pick up on things incredibly fast. They learn a new language quickly and can make connections with regards to concepts with very little explanation. A new study suggests that this nature of quickly picking up on ideas and practices is quite similar to how robots learn. One example is how scientists built a machine meant to resemble a toddler in order to observe this exact phenomenon.

The study was conducted with the partnership of researchers from multiple universities, Phys.org reports. Dr. Katie Twomey is from Lancaster University, Dr. Jessica Horst works at Sussex University, and both Dr. Anthony Morse and Professor Angelo Cangelosi are Plymouth faculty.

Together, the researcher set out to learn more about the intellectual development of children by building a robot called iCub. This machine has the same proportions as a child of three years old, and it is equipped with basic software and equipment. The idea was to have iCub identify new objects that come across the lens of its camera, which helps the researchers get a better idea of how children react to the same situations.

"We know that two-year-old children can work out the meaning of a new word based on words they already know,” Dr. Twomey said. “That is, our toddler can work out that the new word "giraffe" refers to a new toy, when they can also see two others, called "duck" and "rabbit"."

During the tests, it was found that iCub’s rate of progression and direction of taking in information and processing it is roughly the same as its human counterparts, New Atlas reports. One of the biggest potential benefits of the study’s results includes improvements in the early learning process of children in terms of associating objects with others. It could also help in the creation of true artificial intelligence.