Connecting feelings and thoughts - modeling the interaction of emotion and cognition in embodied agents

Abstract

The integration of emotion and cognition in cognitive architectures for embodied agents is a problem of increasing importance. In this paper, we describe how two separate modules for these tasks, as we employ them in our virtual human Max, can influence each other in such an architecture. In the first direction, from cognition to emotion, we present domain-specific as well as more general appraisal mechanisms, as employed in three different interaction scenarios. For domain-independent appraisal the belief-desire-intention model is exploited to derive emotional impulses during the decision process. In the opposite direction, we discuss how emotions can influence cognition either as self-beliefs or as modulators to the decision-making process itself. For the latter, extensions to the BDI-interpreter are proposed.