Development of proactive and reactive behavior via meta-learning of prediction error variance

This paper investigates a possible neurodynamic mechanism that enables autonomous switching between two basic behavioral modes, namely a "proactive mode" and a "reactive mode." In the proactive mode, actions are generated as intended, whereas in the reactive mode actions are generated in response to the sensory state.We conducted neurorobotics experiments to investigate how these two modes can develop and how a robot can learn to switch autonomously between the two modes as necessary by utilizing our recently developed dynamic neural network model. Tasks designed for the robot included switching between proactive imitation of other's predictable movements using acquired memories and reactive following of other's unpredictable movements through iterative learning of alternating predictable and unpredictable movement patterns. The experimental results revealed that this "meta-learning" capability can lead to self-organization of adequate contextual dynamical structures that can perform autonomous switching between the different behavioral modes.