Emotions are emergent processes: they require a dynamic computational architecture

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 Dec 12;364(1535):3459-74. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0141.

Abstract

Emotion is a cultural and psychobiological adaptation mechanism which allows each individual to react flexibly and dynamically to environmental contingencies. From this claim flows a description of the elements theoretically needed to construct a virtual agent with the ability to display human-like emotions and to respond appropriately to human emotional expression. This article offers a brief survey of the desirable features of emotion theories that make them ideal blueprints for agent models. In particular, the component process model of emotion is described, a theory which postulates emotion-antecedent appraisal on different levels of processing that drive response system patterning predictions. In conclusion, investing seriously in emergent computational modelling of emotion using a nonlinear dynamic systems approach is suggested.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Autonomic Nervous System / physiology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Emotions / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Models, Psychological*
  • Neurosecretory Systems / physiology
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Sympathetic Nervous System / physiology