The BIC Model: A Blueprint for the Communicator

In this paper, we outline a cognitive architecture for communicators, called the BIC model. The model consist of three main components. First, a (B)iological component, in which the genetic or built-in capacities of the communicator are specified. Second, an (I)nteraction Engine which uses neoGricean mutual simulation to attribute communicative intentions to signals, and to create signals to convey communicative intentions to the I-system of other agents. The third component of the BIC model is a content addressable database of (C)onventions which is used to store form/meaning mappings that have been successfully computed by the I-system. These stored form/meaning mappings are indexed by types of communicative context, so they can be retrieved by the I-system to save computational resources. The model can be used both as a computational architecture for a communication module in an artificial agent and as a conceptual model of the human communicator.