Bruno Galantucci: Inventing new symbol system
Bruno Galantucci published a paper last year, which is a study of emergent symbolic systems using real people — not simulated agents — playing video games. This was his dissertation.
Haskins Laboratories
300 George Street
New Haven, CT 06511Haskins Phone: (203) 865-6163, x238
Haskins Fax: (203) 865-8963bruno.galantucci@haskins.yale.edu
Research Scientist, Haskins Laboratories
Research Interests
My main research interest is to understand natural languages as the evolutionary consequence of the joint increase in complexity of human actions and social interactions. To study this topic, I have been developing an experimental method that combines the benefits of naturalistic studies with those of computer simulations.Here is how the method works. Two participants play cooperative videogames with interconnected computers. The videogames require players to communicate but: (a) players can not see or hear each other; (b) visual signals maybe exchanged, but only through a device that prevents the use of standard graphic forms (e.g., letters). In other words, to win the games players need to extemporaneously set up a novel communication system. People are surprisingly good at this and the systems they create are often elegant and sophisticated. My current work focuses on a comparative study of these systems in order to better understand the principles that are behind the design of human natural languages.
If you want to know more about this project, here is a paper about it. The key ideas are illustrated in this article. (For the details, here you can find the dissertation summarized in the paper.)
