Formalisation and analysis of the temporal dynamics of conditioning

Abstract

In order to create adaptive Agent Systems with abilities matching those of their biological counterparts, a natural approach is to incorporate classical conditioning mechanisms into such systems. However, existing models for classical conditioning are usually based on differential equations. Since the design of Agent Systems is traditionally based on qualitative conceptual languages, these differential equations are often not directly appropriate to serve as an input for Agent System design. To deal with this problem, this paper explores a formal description and analysis of a conditioning process based on logical specification and analysis methods of dynamic properties of conditioning. Specific types of dynamic properties are global properties, describing properties of the process as a whole, or local properties, describing properties of basic steps in a conditioning process. If the latter type of properties are specified in an executable format, they provide a temporal declarative specification of a simulation model. Global properties can be checked automatically for simulated or other traces. Using these methods the properties of conditioning processes informally expressed by Los and Heuvel [8] have been formalised and verified against a specification of local properties based on Machado [9]'s mathematical model.