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

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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)