Emotion-Based Attention Shift in Autonomous Agents

We present three mechanisms of attention shift for autonomous agents within the framework of the SALT model of memory [5]: activationbased attention shift, attention shift by event-driven emotion and attention shift by anticipation-driven emotion. The three mechanisms rely on automatically computed properties of memory (as opposed to deliberative processes). Activation-based attention shift is based on the activation of cognitive structures stored in long term memory. The other two are two-step emotionbased mechanisms of attention shift: first emotion interrupts the agent's current cognitive process (as in activation-based attention shift), then the processing of the emotion directs the agent's attention to the external environment. In attention shift by event-driven emotion, the ongoing cognitive process may be interrupted when an external event causes the agent to experience an emotion. In the attention shift by anticipation-driven emotion, the ongoing cognitive process may be interrupted when the agent anticipates affective states attributed to the external environment.