26th November, 2003 (6 years ago)

Allow me, for a while, to reflect on past events to explain the history of our research. What they meant was not obvious at the time they happened, but I believe that I can now describe them better than before.

On 26th November, 2003, these pictures were taken. During the term, I was responsible for running a lecture of Cognitive Science. It was the second time I taught the subject at the institute. I failed somehow to convince myself to teach our students the subject, Cognitive Science, in traditional manners because I was not, and am still not, certain whether focusing on our reasoning abilities was appropriate when we talk about human. I thus adopted an exercise in which students had to move their own bodies to acquire some skill. The skill was Samba :-)





I was fascinated by the music, then, and proposed them to observe their acquisition process where they gradually leant to play the shaker on the rhythm. I do not know why the did not object to my proposal. They might have expected me to do something strange or unusual. In previous year, in fact, I employed a trainer for the lecture, who instructed the participants to do some physical exercises. I was notorious for forcing participants to do things unusual :-)

Here is an example what they were doing:
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/reflections/20031126.mov

I told the participants that we would have a presentation session in the end, where all of them should belong to some group and play the music in front of other participants. We observed then how well they played music and the source of their abilities. They understood certainly how difficult it is to play an unfamiliar rhythm and how long it takes to acquire the skill. I was in the beginning afraid that they might not spend much time for practice, but they seemed to enjoy playing the instrument as a group, to my relief.

Here is another example, in which a group of students are teaching each other how to play the instrument.
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/reflections/20031126a.mov

Today, I can explain why we needed to do the practice. I was interested to know how important the physical coordination among participants is in establishing a common ground for communication although I could not spell out the idea fully. Mimetic ability consists of memorizing your bodily coordination among joints and muscles, recalling it later intentionally, adjusting it to coincide your movement with others, etc. Apes do not have such abilities. Mimetic skill is central for us to be human.

It took long time for me to come to the idea. I believe that I could not have reached this stage without students' commitment to my lecture of Cognitive Science. I am thankful to their patience and enthusiasm, which led the lecture to success. Our research has been supported by these people.