The SprachSpielLabor is part of the psycholinguistics group of CoAI JRC member Katharina Rohlfing at Paderborn University. The laboratory investigates how children acquire language, with special attention to the ways that eye contact, gestures, and mutual engagement provide young children with essential tools for learning through interaction. The lab also investigates human child-robot interaction, studying how children in different stages of development engage and learn with humanlike robot partners.
Several studies in the SprachSpielLabor have led to a deeper understanding of how pragmatic frames structure the interaction between child learner and human or robot partner. These insights help us better understand the cognitive architectures and interactive capacities needed for AI to utilize pragmatic frames to cooperate effectively and learn with human partners.
If you would like to learn more about pragmatic frames in human-robot interaction and AI, this review article is a good place to start.
The lab has facilities for creating and observing interactions with children in natural task settings and recording them for in-depth analysis. There is also eye-tracking technology to help study the role of gaze and eye contact in child language development and human-robot interaction.