Some thoughts on observational learning

Research and Theory
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Although it seems clear that we can learn by interacting with the world (highlighting the sensorimotor theory), we can also learn by simply observing it. For example, I’ve learned a bit from watching the TBT videos (:-).

So, I had a short ChatGPT session about this area:

Q: Some animals (and most humans) can learn by observation. For example, octopi have been shown to learn a task faster if they have observed another octopus performing it. What animals are known to have this capability?

A: … mostly mammals, but also some birds, cephalopods, fish, and reptiles …

Q: Many of these animals lack a cerebral cortex. What other parts of the brain might be helping with this capability?

A: … Even without a cerebral cortex, animals leverage other brain structures like the pallium, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebellum to support observational learning. Different species have evolved their own neurological solutions for social learning, demonstrating that intelligence is not solely tied to having a cortex!

I suspect that observational learning could be very helpful in training Monty. For example, there are bazillions of videos on the web showing various activities (e.g., playing musical instruments). Both vision and hearing can be used to understand what is going on; a bit of motor activity (e.g., controlling the eyes and the video playback) could also be employed. Comment?

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The thing likely driving much of that observational learning, in my opinion, likely stems from social cooperation. E.g. animals which evolved to behave socially (most mammals, social insects, certain birds, et cetera) likely developed this ability because it allowed the disparate members of their respective groups to more easily behave as a single unified whole.

And yeah, you don’t neccasily need cortex to do this. The cerrebellum, for instance, can perform a lot of these kinds of computation. Its actually pretty good to have multiple, structurally different neural systems within the same organism which can lead to the same functional outcomes. It provides a kind of redunancy, often called degeneracy.

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