A Theory of Unifying Cognitive Processing, Appraisal and Emotion Bob Marinier John Laird University of Michigan
Dec 16, 2015
A Theory of Unifying Cognitive Processing, Appraisal and Emotion
Bob MarinierJohn Laird
University of Michigan
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Overview
Introduction Emotions Agent Processing Unification
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Introduction Have independent theories of agent
processing and emotion Agent Processing: Allen Newell’s PEACTIDM Emotion: Appraisal Theory
Each of these is incomplete Emotions and rationality are tightly integrated
in humans Emotions prepare humans for situations and
motivate them, but still allow for flexibility in generating responses (i.e. can do more than react)
How can we unify agent processing and emotion?
Emotion: Appraisal Theory
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Appraisal Theory of Emotion
Suppose a person has some goals, beliefs, etc. (knowledge)
An event occurs (internal or external) The person appraises the relationship between his
goals and the event along a number of dimensions (e.g. unexpectedness, conduciveness, agency, etc).
The appraisal automatically leads to emotion (e.g. physiological/cognitive changes, thought-action urges, etc)
The person perceives emotion as feelings (internal event)
The person copes with feelings by taking internal or external actions to improve/maintain the relationship between his goals and the environment
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Scherer 2001 Roseman 2001Smith & Lazarus 1990; Smith & Kirby 2001
Lazarus 1991/2001Gratch & Marsella (2004)
Novelty: SuddennessNovelty: FamiliarityNovelty: PredictabilityIntrinsic pleasantnessGoal/need relevance Motivational relevance Goal relevance RelevanceCause: agent
AgencySelf/Other accountability
Blame and creditCausal attributionCause: motive
Outcome probabilityProbability
Future expectancyFuture expectations
Likelihood
UrgencyDiscrepancy from expectation
Unexpectedness
Conduciveness Situational state Motivational congruence Goal congruence DesirabilityControl
Control potentialProblem-focused coping potential
Coping potential
ChangeabilityPower Controllability
AdjustmentEmotion-focused coping potential
Internal standards compatibility Type of ego
involvementPerspective
External standards compatibility
Motivational stateProblem type
14/Complete 17/Complete 5/Partial 17/Partial 6/Partial
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Scherer 2001 Elation/Joy Fear Rage/Hot Anger
Suddenness High/medium High High
Familiarity Low Low
Predictability Low Low Low
Intrinsic pleasantness Low
Goal/need Relevance High High High
Cause: agent Other/nature
Other
Cause: motive Chance/intentional
Intentional
Outcome probability Very high High Very high
Discrepancy from Expectation
Dissonant Dissonant
Conduciveness Very high Obstruct Obstruct
Urgency Low Very high High
Control High
Power Very low High
Adjustment Medium Low High
Internal standards compatibility
External standards compatibility
Low
Appraisals to EmotionsR
ele
vance
Implic
ati
on
Copin
g
pote
nti
al
Norm
ati
ve
Sig
nifi
canc
e
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Agent
Environment
Emotion (Thought-Action Urges,
Cognitive Changes, Physiological Changes)
Event Goals, Beliefs
Inference/Appraisal Perception
(of Feelings)
Coping Perception Action
App
rais
al
Det
ecto
r
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What’s missing?
How are appraisals generated? When are appraisals generated? How do emotion and appraisal
impact behavior (in detail)?
Agent Processing: PEACTIDM
And unification withappraisal and emotion
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Agent Processing:Allen Newell’s PEACTIDM
Perceive Raw perception
Encode Domain-independent representation
Attend Chose stimulus to process
Comprehend Generate a structure that relates stimulus to goals that can be used to inform behavior
Tasking Perform goal maintenance
Intend Chose an action
Decode Decompose action into motor commands
Motor Execute motor commands
Even
t Pro
cess
ing
Resp
onse
Pro
cess
ing
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Event Processing:Desirable Properties Domain independent Limited working memory Happens over time Incremental Supports immediate comprehension Supports hierarchical comprehension Supports prediction Influenced by external processes
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Encode will generate domain-independent structures from the raw information it gets from Perceive
Possible encoded structures Talmy (1975)
Figure Motion Path Ground
Simplification Actor Action
May also include information about novelty (e.g. this is a common event or not, it occurred suddenly or not, etc)
Encode and Event Structure
BobWalkingAcrossStreet
BobWalking across street
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Attend There may be multiple events occurring
simultaneously Encode is a fast parallel process, and
thus all perceived events may be encoded
Attend picks one to focus on and comprehend next May pick based on novelty, which is
generated by Perceive and Encode
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Comprehension Process Goal: To create data structures that inform
behavior Key: Process sequences of events Process
Observe some sequence of events (e.g. the beginning of some sequence)
Match partial sequence to known complete sequence Use complete sequence to predict next event
Only work on one event or sequence at a time (i.e. processing is local)
Since the event structures are domain independent, this process is also domain independent
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Abstract Events, Sequences and Subgoals An event sequence can be abstracted to
represent a single event in a more abstract sequence
Example: Step down from curb Take a few steps Step up onto curb …this is just the “Cross the Street” event, which may
be just one event in the “Get from Car to Office” sequence, which may be one event in the “Go to Work” sequence…which may be just one event in the “Living My Life” sequence.
Abstract events can be thought of as subgoals There are many possible ways to represent these
hierarchies….
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Step Down
Walk
Cross the Street
Walk up to Building
Open Door
Get From Car to Office
Event Knowledge Hierarchy 1
Enter Building
Cross theStreet
EnterBuilding
Get From Carto Office
Events
Sequences
Events
Sequences
Events
Step Up
Go to Work
Go to Work
…
Sequences
Events
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Go to Work1 Go to Work2 …
AB1 AB2 …
Step Down
Walk
Enter Street
Step Up
Walk up to Building
Cross the Street
CS & AB
ES1 ES2 …
Cross the Street1
Cross the Street2
…
CS & AB1
CS & AB2
…
Events
SequencesEvents
Sequences
Sequences
Events
Events
Event Knowledge Hierarchy 2
Leave StreetLS1 LS2 … EB11 EB12 …
EB1
Approach Building
EB21 EB22 …
Open Door
EB2
Enter Building1
Enter Building2
…
Get from Car to Office1
Get from Car to Office2
…
AB & EB1
AB & EB2
…
Enter Building
AB & EB
Get from Car to Office
SequencesEvents
Go to Work
SequencesEvents
… …
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Comprehension Process Details
Comprehend Event
Reinterpret Events
MatchesPrediction?
Determine Probability
Determine Causality
Determine Goal
Conduciveness
Extract Information to
Inform Behavior
YES
NO
Appraisals
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Event Processing: Desirable Properties Revisited
Domain independent Events are domain-independent
Limited working memory
One interpretation at a time
Happens over time Events occur over time
Incremental Attend to one event at a time; Local processing
Supports immediate comprehension
Can always guess at complete sequence based on event
Supports hierarchical comprehension
Sequences can be abstracted to events
Supports prediction Next event can be read from guessed complete sequence
Influenced by external processes
Ambiguity resolution can be biased by current goal, emotion, memory activation, etc.
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Agent Processing: Allen Newell’s PEACTIDM
Perceive Raw perception
Encode Domain-independent representation
Attend Chose stimulus to process
Comprehend Generate a structure that relates stimulus to goals that can be used to inform behavior
Tasking Perform goal maintenance
Intend Chose an action
Decode Decompose action into motor commands
Motor Execute motor commands
Even
t Pro
cess
ing
Resp
onse
Pro
cess
ing
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Tasking Process Goal: Update current goal if threatened Key: Emotion automatically signals with
status (goal threatened, situation alterable) and how to fix it (e.g. whose fault is it, etc)
Process: If feel bad (i.e. goal threatened)
If feel angry (e.g. can alter course of events), set new subgoal to get back on track
If feel afraid (e.g. can’t alter course of events), give up on goal
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Tasking Process Details
Tasking
Set New Subgoal
Feel Bad?
Set New Goal
AngryHow?
YES
Afraid
Feelings
Coping Strategie
s
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Intend Process Goal: Determine next action to execute Key: In general, there may be many paths
from the current situation to the goal, so Intend must pick one
In general, may also have to contend with action tendencies (e.g. automatic responses)
Process: If urgency is high, chose “automatic” response Otherwise, walk event hierarchy to find path to goal If first event on path is mine, execute it (otherwise
wait for event to occur)
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Scherer 2001 Generated By Required ByNovelty: Suddenness Perception
AttendNovelty: FamiliarityEncodingNovelty: Predictability
Intrinsic pleasantness
Tasking (via Feelings)
Goal/need relevance
Comprehension
Cause: agentCause: motiveOutcome probabilityUrgencyDiscrepancy from expectation ComprehensionConduciveness
Tasking (via Feelings)
ControlPowerAdjustmentInternal standards compatibilityExternal standards compatibility
Unification
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Agent
Environment
Emotion (Thought-Action Urges,
Cognitive Changes, Physiological Changes)
Event Goals, Beliefs
Inference/Appraisal (PEAC)
Perception (of Feelings)
(PE)
Coping (ACTI) Perception
(PE) Action (IDM)
App
rais
al
Det
ecto
r
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Predictions
Agent should be interruptible Partial ordering constraint on
appraisal generation Different emotions may require
different amounts of processing Time constraints may lead to errors
in comprehension (and thus emotion)
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Future Work
Tracking multiple goals Keeping track of others’ goals Better-than-random
disambiguation Dealing with loosely-connected
event hierarchies
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Summary: Unification of PEACTIDM, Appraisal and Emotion PEACTIDM defines critical functions, but not how they
are achieved, e.g. What is generated by comprehension? How does tasking work?
Appraisal and Emotion define critical data used to drive behavior (and which of those data arise from automatic or knowledge-driven processes), but not how the data are generated by the agent’s processing, e.g.
When is appraisal generated? Why is appraisal generated then?
In general, Need appraisal information in order to Attend,
Comprehend, Task and Intend Comprehension (and Perception and Encoding) provide this
appraisal information Emotion summarizes it (and also generates common
automatic responses and prepares body to take those actions)