Call for contributions - Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems

[Martin Butz]

(We apologize for multiple copies)
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                 C A L L   F O R   C O N T R I B U T I O N S

                               ABiALS 2002
                          Post Proceedings Book:

              "Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems:
                     Foundations, Theories, and Systems"

        to appear in Springer's Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence
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                         the first workshop on
        Adaptive Behavior in Anticipatory Learning Systems (ABiALS 2002)
                     was held on August 11., 2002 in
                          Edinburgh, Scotland
                  http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/ABiALS

        in association with the seventh international conference on
                Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'02)
                     http://www.isab.org.uk/sab02/


This upcoming volume addresses the question of when, where, and how
anticipations are useful in adaptive systems. Anticipations refer to the
influence of future predictions or future expectations on behavior and
learning.

ABiALS 2002 was a first interdisciplinary gathering of people interested
in how anticipations can be used efficiently to improve behavior and
learning. Four fundamentally different systems were distinguished:

(1) Implicitly anticipatory systems are those that act/learn in an
intelligent way but do not include any predictive bias in the applied
learning and/or behavioral mechanisms.
(2) Payoff anticipatory systems are those systems that do compare payoff
predictions for action decisions but do not use any state predictions.
(3) Sensory anticipatory systems are systems that use sensory predictions
to improve perceptual processing (e.g. preparatory attention).
(4) State anticipatory systems are systems that form explicit future
predictions/expectations that influence action decisions and learning.

The book "Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems" will address
the latter two of the four types of systems. Submissions are welcome that
are concerned with any type of sensory anticipatory or state anticipatory
system.

___________________________________________________________________________

Aim and Objectives:

Most of the research over the last years in artificial adaptive behavior
concerned with model learning and anticipatory behavior has focused on the
model learning side. Research is particularly engaged in online
generalized model learning. Until now, though, exploitation of the model
has been done mainly to show that exploitation is possible or that an
appropriate model exists in the first place. Only very few applications
are available that show the utility of the model for the simulation of
anticipatory behavior.

The aim of this book is to lay out the foundations for a study of
anticipatory learning and behavior. The content will be divided roughly
into three chapters. The first chapter will provide psychological
background that not only supports  the presence of anticipatory mechanisms
in ``higher'' animals and humans but also sheds light on when and why
anticipatory mechanisms can be useful. Chapter 2 will provide foundations
and frameworks for the study of anticipatory mechanisms distinguishing
fundamentally different mechanisms. Finally, Chapter 3 will contain
examples of implemented frameworks and systems.

___________________________________________________________________________

Essential questions:

*   How can anticipations influence the adaptive behavior of an artificial
    learning system?
*   How can anticipatory adaptive behavior be implemented in an artificial
    learning system?
*   How does an incomplete model influence anticipatory behavior?
*   How can anticipations guide further model learning?
*   How can anticipations control attention?
*   Can anticipations be used for the detection of special environmental
    properties?
*   What are the benefits of anticipations for adaptive behavior?
*   What is the trade-off between simple bottom-up stimulus-response driven
    behavior and more top-down anticipatory driven behavior?
*   In what respect does anticipation mediate between low-level environmental
    processing and more complex cognitive simulation?
*   What role do anticipations play for the implementation of motivations and
    emotions?


___________________________________________________________________________

Submission:

Submissions for the book should address one or more of the above questions
or provide appropriate psychological background on anticipatory mechanisms
in animals and humans. Papers with inappropriate content will be rejected.

The book is intended to be interdisciplinary and open to all approaches to
anticipatory behavior. There is no restriction on the type of anticipatory
learning system or on the representation of predictions for anticipatory
behavior and learning.

Papers will be reviewed for acceptance by the program committee and the
organizers. Papers should be submitted electronically to one of the
organizers via email in pdf or ps format. Electronic submission is
strongly encouraged. If you cannot submit your contribution
electronically, please contact one of the organizers. Submitted papers
should be between 10 and 20 pages in 10pt, one-column format. Please use
the LNCS style available at:
http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html.

Submission deadline is DECEMBER 20, 2002.

For more information please refer to the workshop page:
http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/ABiALS/
Please also see our introductory talk to the workshop for more detailed
information on anticipations and different types of anticipatory behavior:
http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/ABiALS/ABiALS2002Introduction.htm
There is also an introductory paper available that provides further
general information on the topic:
http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/ABiALS/Papers/ABiALS2002Intro.pdf

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Important Dates:

20.December 2002:     Deadline for Submissions
24.January  2002:     Notification of Acceptance
21.February 2002:     Camera Ready Version for LNAI Volume

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Program Committee:

Emmanuel Daucé
Faculté des sciences du sport
Université de la Méditerrannée
Marseille, France

Ralf Moeller
Cognitive Robotics
Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research
Munich, Germany

Wolfgang Stolzmann
DaimlerChrysler AG
Berlin, Germany

Jun Tani
Lab. for Behavior and Dynamic Cognition
Brain Science Institute, RIKEN
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan

Stewart W. Wilson
President
Prediction Dynamics
USA


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Organizers:

Martin V. Butz,
Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory (IlliGAL),
Universtiy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA
also: Department of Cognitive Psychology
University of Wuerzburg, Germany
butz at illigal.ge.uiuc.edu
http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/~butz

Pierre Gérard,
AnimatLab,
University Paris VI,
Paris, France
pierre.gerard at lip6.fr
http://animatlab.lip6.fr/Gerard

Olivier Sigaud
AnimatLab,
University Paris VI,
Paris, France
olivier.sigaud at lip6.fr
http://animatlab.lip6.fr/Sigaud