Auriel Washburn: Anticipatory Synchronization of Chaotic Behaviors in Humans and Artificial Agents
Abstract: Coordinating one’s behaviors with that of another individual is fundamental to successful social interaction. In most instances, such interaction is effortless and efficient, even when we are faced with highly variable and often unpredictable behavioral events. Key to achieving such coordination and cooperation is being able to predict or anticipate the behaviors of other individuals. Research investigating the mechanisms that support behavioral anticipation has traditionally focused on hypotheses formulated to explain how the human nervous system compensates for the temporal delays that occur between the production of a movement and the perception of its outcome (i.e., feedback). In contrast, work examining the dynamics of laser semiconductors, electrical circuits and coupled neurons suggests that small temporal feedback delays might actually enhance the ability of a physical system to synchronize with, and even anticipate, unpredictable, chaotic events. This counterintuitive phenomenon has been termed strong anticipation or self-organized anticipatory synchronization. The current talk will explore recent work demonstrating the occurrence of feedback-delay induced anticipatory synchronization of chaotic movement behaviors during coordination between two human actors, as well as in human actors interacting with artificial agents within a virtual environment, toward the development of artificial agents that will be capable of anticipating complex, aperiodic human behaviors.
Biography: Auriel Washburn earned a B.A. in Biological Sciences, concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior, from Cornell University and an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the Center for Cognition, Action and Perception at the University of Cincinnati. She is currently in the process of completing her doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her research involves a variety of different areas and interests, all based on the reflection that the majority of human actions and interactions require complex behavioral coordination be performed in a stable and robust manner. In order to better understand such intrapersonal, agent-environment, and inter-agent coordinative processes and how they relate to each other, she employs the use of behavioral time series techniques and analyses which allow her to evaluate meaningful patterns in performance. Having played violin and viola for many years, much of her interest in social coordination stems from personal experiences playing in music ensembles. She feels that many aspects of joint musical performance can be used to develop a broader understanding of collaborative behavior, and hopes to continue exploring these as a source of ideas about the field of interpersonal coordination throughout her career.