An adaptive agent model for emotion reading by mirroring body states and Hebbian learning

Abstract

In recent years, the topic of emotion reading has increasingly received attention from researchers in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence. To study this phenomenon, in this paper an adaptive agent model is presented with capabilities to interpret another agent's emotions. The presented agent model is based on recent advances in neurological context. First a non-adaptive agent model for emotion reading is described involving (preparatory) mirroring body states of the other agent. Here emotion reading is modelled taking into account the Simulation Theory perspective as known from the literature, involving the own body states and emotions in reading somebody else's emotions. This models an agent that first develops the same feeling, and after feeling the emotion imputes it to the other agent. Next the agent model is extended to an adaptive model based on a Hebbian learning principle to develop a direct connection between a sensed stimulus concerning another agent's body state (e.g., face expression) and the emotion recognition state. In this adaptive agent model the emotion is imputed to the other agent before it is actually felt. The agent model has been designed based on principles of neural modelling, and as such has a close relation to a neurological realisation.