Exploring Sensitization in the Context of Extending the Behavior of an Artificial Agent

Tristan Gillard, Jérémy Fix, Alain Dutech

Abstract: Sensitization, a non-associative learning widely observed across phylogeny, is fundamental for adaptation and, thus, survival of living organisms. This paper investigates one form of sensitization, namely pseudo-conditioning, in order to present a new computational model inspired by its characteristics. We develop this model as part of the Iterant Deformable Sensorimotor Medium (IDSM), a recently developed abstract model of sensorimotor behavior formation. The characteristics of the presented model are studied and analyzed in the light of our long term objective of investigating new unsupervised learning mechanisms for artificial autonomous agents.