Neuromorphically Inspired Appraisal-Based Decision Making in a Cognitive Robot

Biologically inspired intelligent decision making

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are a class of powerful machine learning models for classification and function approximation which have analogs in nature. An ANN learns to map stimuli to responses through repeated evaluation of exemplars of the mapping. This learning approach results in networks which are recognized for their noise tolerance and ability to generalize meaningful responses for...

Effects of Group Status and Cognitive Appraisal Prime on Integrative Complexity in a Decision Making Context

Title of Document: EFFECTS OF GROUP STATUS AND COGNITIVE APPRAISAL PRIME ON INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY IN A DECISION MAKING CONTEXT Katherine Lynn Van Allen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Professor Charles Stangor, Psychology Integrative complexity has been shown to influence information-processing and decision-making in different social situations. The present research assessed the effec...

Instance-Based Cognitive Models of Decision-Making

A Cognitive Model of Recognition-Based Moral Decision Making

The study of decision making has been dominated by economic perspectives, which model people as rational agents who carefully weigh costs and benefits and try to maximize the utility of every choice, without consideration of issues such as cultural norms, religious beliefs and moral rules. However, psychological findings indicate that in many situations people are not rational decision makers a...

Constrained Incrementalist Moral Decision Making for a Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architecture

The field of machine ethics has emerged in response to the development of autonomous artificial agents with the ability to interact with human beings, or to produce changes in the environment which can affect humans (Allen, Varner, & Zinser, 2000). Such agents, whether physical (robots) or virtual (software agents) need a mechanism for moral decision making in order to ensure that their actions...