1. CALL FOR PAPERS: Symposium on Computational Modelling of Emotion: Theory and Applications, (during 18-21st April 2017, Bath, UNITED KINGDOM)
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~ddp/aisb17cme/
(Deadline for submissions: 15th January 2017)
Overview: Contemporary emotion modelling includes many projects attempting to understand natural emotions or to implement simulated emotions in chatbots, avatars or robots, for practical uses of many sorts from entertainment to caring. The numerous models of affective phenomena in the literature differ in important respects. They differ in how they describe and explain a range of phenomena, including the nature and order of perceptual, cognitive and emotional mental processes and behavioural responses in emotional episodes. They also differ in their target level of granularity: from fine-grained neural to coarse-grained psychological. Different models simulate emotions (and other mental states) with different ontological status and with a different focus on whether they model external behaviour or internal states. This diversity provides a challenge, but also an opportunity. This symposium aims to facilitate movement towards a mature integrated field with a deeper and richer understanding of biological minds by more clearly setting out interrelationships between emotion models.
Contributions that identify and attempt to remedy gaps and lack of breadth in current research on affective phenomena are particularly welcome. A narrow modelling focus may be appropriate for narrowly focused applications of AI, such as toys or entertainment. Richer theories that are intended to advance the science of mind should include affective states such as: motives, attachments, preferences, values, standards, attitudes, moods, ambitions, obsessions, humour, grief, various kinds of pride, and various moral and aesthetic phenomena. So the symposium will consider how varieties of affect can be integrated and validated in computational models.
The aims of this symposium also include: presenting the state of the art in emotion modelling; bringing together an interdisciplinary community interested in exploiting this technology; and looking forward by defining new challenges, including empirical, philosophical, and technological, as well as contributing to our understanding of natural varieties of affect and how they fit in with other aspects of cognition.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- How models explain the nature of interaction between reasoning and emotion, and the emotional underpinnings of reasoning;
- Computational architectures which model emotion
- Models of affect which are incorporated within applications in human computer interaction and health technology. For example, in the health domain, emotion models which can enhance assessment, diagnosis and treatment.
- Explaining how technological applications can be used to make contributions to psychological theory
- Is emotion algorithmic/computational? to what extent?
- Embodied, situated and enactivist approaches to emotion
- Emotion model validation
- Towards computational models for online dynamic diagnosis and therapeutic interventions
- Modelling of emotion regulation for self-help, cognitive and mindfulness psychotherapy, and positive psychology.
- Emotion modelling in computational psychiatry, including investigating the mechanisms of pathological thinking and emotion
- Attachment modelling
- How computational models can provide accounts of how emotions and cognitions shape each other over different timescales, from momentary episodes to the development of personality
- Using computational emotion models in research on: self-control, meta-management, and coherence in thought and behaviour (and loss of these states)
As the AISB convention has the overall theme of "Society with AI," submissions are welcome that focus on social and ethical questions, including:
- Can artificial systems be given the full range of human emotions? Or can these emotions simply emerge from the functioning of the model components? If 'yes', are there ethical limitations in what systems should be created or allowed to develop?
- How will people respond to emotional agents as they become more realistic?; What implications will sophisticated emotional agents have for human to human relations, and how humans understand what it means to be human?
- the near-future relevance of emotions in AI,
- the potential benefits or threats to society.
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Organising committee
Dr Dean Petters (Psychology)
Email: d.d.petters@cs.bham.ac.uk
Department of Psychology, Birmingham City University
David Moffat (Computer Science)
Email david.c.moffat@gmail.com
School of Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University
Dr Joel Parthemore (Philosophy)
Email: joel.parthemore@his.se
visiting researcher, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy, University of Sk?vde, Sweden
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Important dates
Deadline for submissions: 15th January 2017
Notification of acceptance: 15th February 2017
Final versions to be submitted for inclusion in proceedings 15th March 2017
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*Paper submission via Easychair: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~ddp/aisb17cme/#submissions