The Impact of Durative State on Action Selection

Emotion, Personality, and Social Behavior

Volume

Papers from the 2008 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

Chemical / hormonal diffusion is the phylogenetically oldest form of biological action selection. In this paper we argue its persistence in higher animals is a consequence of its utility in solving problems of dithering between high-level goals. Chemical state underlying emotions and drives provides greater persistence more easily than the electrical action potential systems underlying the fine details of action sequencing, while also providing periodicity and transience not easily afforded in longer-term learning systems such as synaptic plasticity. We argue that artificial real-time autonomous systems require similar systems, and review our own efforts and approaches to providing these.