Affective Computing:
Agents With Emotion
Victor C. Hung
University of Central Florida – Orlando, FL
EEL6938: Special Topics in Autonomous Agents
March 29, 2007
Agenda
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Introduction
Highlighted Projects
Affective Cognitive Learning & Decision
Making
Questions
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Introduction
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Affective Computing relates to, arises from, or
deliberately influences emotion or other
affective phenomena
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Engineering, computer science with psychology,
cognitive science, neuroscience, sociology,
education, psychophysiology, ethics …
Emotion is fundamental to human experience
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Cognition
Perception
Learning
Communication
Rational decision-making
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Introduction
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Technologists have largely ignored emotion
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Affect has been misunderstood
Hard to measure
MIT Media Lab: Affective Computing
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http://affect.media.mit.edu
Develop new technologies and theories
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Understanding affect and its role in human experience
Restore a proper balance between emotion and
cognition in the design of technologies for
addressing human needs
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Introduction
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Issues in affective computing
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Communication of affective-cognitive states to
machines
Techniques to assess frustration, stress, and mood
indirectly
Make computers can be more emotionally
intelligent
Personal technologies for improving self-awareness
of affective states
Emotion’s influences personal health
Ethics
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Highlighted Projects
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Affective-Cognitive Framework for
Machine Learning and Decision-Making
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Digital Story Explication as it Relates to
Emotional Needs and Learning
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Emotion’s role in learning and decision
making
Emotional interaction in child learning
ESP - The Emotional-Social Intelligence
Prosthesis
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Aid for the emotionally-impaired
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Highlighted Projects
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Fostering Affect Awareness and
Regulation in Learning
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Machine Learning and Pattern
Recognition with Multiple Modalities
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Combat frustration during the learning
process
Emotional sensor data fusion
Ripley: A Conversational Robot
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Human-robot interaction platform through
language and visual perception modalities
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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(2006) Ahn and Picard’s “Affective-Cognitive
Learning and Decision Making: The Role of
Emotions”, The 18th European Meeting on
Cybernetics and Systems Research
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Framework for learning and decision making
Inspired by neural basis of motivations and the role
of emotions in human behavior
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Affective biases
Loss aversion
Effect of mood on decision making
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Affective biases
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Two-armed bandit
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Loss aversion
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Prefer avoiding losses than acquiring gains
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Effect of mood on decision making
HAPPINESS
Optimism about the present
Pessimism about the future
FEAR
University of Central Florida
ANGER
Optimism about the future
Pessimism about the present
SADNESS
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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A motivational value (reward)-based learning theory:
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Probabilistic models
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Extrinsic value from the cognitive (deliberative and analytic)
systems
Intrinsic value from multiple affective systems such as Seeking
(Wanting), Fear, Rage, and other circuits
Cognition (cognitive state transition)
Multiple affect circuits (Seeking, Joy, Anger, Fear, ...)
Decision making model
Previous knowledge can be incorporated for expecting
the consequences of decisions (or computing the
cognitive value)
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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The DecisionMaking Model
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Cognitive state (c)
Affective state (a)
Decision (d)
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Affective seeking value =
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Valence = decided by the mean of the filtered values
for the reward samples
Arousal = uncertainty of the reward sample
distribution (modeled as standard deviation)
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Complete decision-making expression:
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Non-affect agent has only the cognitive
component
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Affective agent vs. Non-affect agent
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Influence of an outlier on the cognitive values and the
valence values
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Affective component less sensitive to outliers than
cognitive component
Affective Cooling: Agreement between two components
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More likely to follow the decision by the cognitive component
(Exploitation)
Value of the induced inverse temperature parameter increases
Humans using cognition in decision-making
Affective Heating: Conflict between two components
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Less likely to follow the decision by the cognitive component
(Exploration)
Value of the induced inverse temperature parameter
decreases
Humans depending on emotion in decision-making
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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10-armed bandit tasks
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Too much or too
little affect impairs
learning
 Excessive
learns faster,
but not good
for long-term
 Insufficient
better for longterm, but slow
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Affective-Cognitive Learning & Decision Making
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Results and Conclusions
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Framework enhancements
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Affective bias
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Model other affect circuits
Incidental influences on decision making
Use of prior knowledge for expecting cognitive outcomes ･
Helps automatically regulate exploration and exploitation
Speed up learning without sacrificing decision quality
This framework might mimic well-studied human
behavior
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Risk aversion
Effects of mood on decision making
Self-control
University of Central Florida
www.ucf.edu
Questions?