[ACT-R-users] CFP: Remembering Who We Are - Human Memory for Artificial Agents at AISB 2010

[Holger Schultheis]

Dear colleagues,

the deadline of 15th January for the "Remembering Who 
We Are - Human Memory for Artificial Agents" symposium is fast 
approaching. Please note that submission is now through the EasyChair
system.

------------***apologies if you receive multiple copies***---------

CALL FOR PAPERS

REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE – HUMAN MEMORY FOR ARTIFICIAL AGENTS

A one day symposium on 29th March 2010
In conjunction with the AISB 2010 Convention
(http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/AISB2010.html)
De Montfort University, Leicester
The symposium is supported by the European FP7 Project LIREC
(http://www.lirec.eu/)

Memory gives us identity, shapes our personality and drives our
reactions to different situations in life. We actively create
expectations, track the fulfilment of these expectations and
dynamically modify our memory when new experiences demand it. Yet up
to date, many important social aspects of human memory (for instance,
emotional memory and episodic memory) to artificial intelligent agents
have not been given much attention. The challenge might lie in the
amount of memories one can have in a life time. Take a narrative agent
for example, how can we generate a lifetime’s worth of memories for
this agent? Can we easily record human experiences for this purpose?
What trust and privacy issues will this entail? On the other hand,
without this type of memory, can the agent generate believable life
stories given that it is what colors our lives in retrospect? For an
agent that continuously interacts with users or other agents, how can
we design it with the capability to generate memories worth
remembering in its lifetime? How can the agent record experiences of
others during interaction? Can the agent maintain its relationship
with others without any information about its past experiences with
them?

Artificial agent researchers have been constantly coming up with
computational cognitive models inspired by the human brain to create
characters that are more natural, believable and behave in human
plausible ways. However, memory components in these models are usually
oversimplified. Memory components which have been widely accepted and
modelled are the long-term memory including procedural and declarative
memories, the short-term memory and the sensory memory. What about the
more ‘socially-aware’ memory which allows us to be effectively
involved in social interactions and which fundamentally supports the
creation of our life stories including the significance of events and
their emotional impact? It is important to review artificial agents
without this kind of memory particularly those designed for social
interactions, and reflect on the effects of this shortcoming.
Additionally, many existing models do not take into consideration the
bio-mechanisms of human memory operations such as those involved in
retrieval and forgetting processes. The most commonly adopted approach
to forgetting is decay but the human brain performs other processes
such as generalisation, reconstruction and repression to list a few.

This symposium offers an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussions
on human-like memory for artificial agents including organisational
structures and mechanisms. We hope to bring together memory
researchers, psychologists, computer scientists and neurologists to
discuss issues on memory modelling, memory data collection and
application to achieve a better understanding of which, when and how
human-like memory can contribute to artificial agents modelling.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

* Role of memory in artificial agents
* Type of memory and application
* Memory and emotion modelling
* Human-agent/human-robot interaction history
* Effective memory data collection
* Privacy issues related to data collection
* Bio-inspiration to memory modelling
* Memory mechanisms for encoding, storage and retrieval
* Memory influence on reasoning and decision-making
* Modelling forgetting in episodic memory
* Ethological aspects of memory
* Spatial memory

Submission

We are seeking submissions of original papers (up to 8 pages) that fit
well with the symposium theme and topics. Papers should be submitted
through the EasyChair system
(http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rwwa10). You will have to
register with EasyChair if you do not already have an account. Please
submit your paper in PDF format (according to the AISB 2010 formatting
guidelines - templates available on the AISB 2010
convention website). All submissions will be peer reviewed. Authors of
accepted contributions will be asked to prepare the final versions (up
to 8 pages) for inclusion in the symposium proceedings. At least one
author of each accepted paper will be required to register and attend
the symposium to present their work.

Important Dates

* 15th January 2010: Submission deadline of full-length paper
* 8th February 2010: Notification for paper acceptance
* 1st March 2010: Submission of camera-ready final papers
* 29th March 2010: Symposium

Program Committee

Cyril Brom, Charles University Prague
Sibylle Enz, University of Bamberg
Stan Franklin, The University of Memphis
Wan Ching Ho, University of Hertfordshire (co-chair)
Mei Yii Lim, Heriot-Watt University (co-chair)
Andrew Nuxoll, University of Portland
Alexei Samsonovich, George Mason University
Holger Schultheis, University of Bremen
Dan Tecuci, University of Texas
Patricia A. Vargas, Heriot-Watt University

Official Website
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~myl/AISBRWWA.html

Contact

Dr. Mei Yii Lim
Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, EH14 4AS, UK
Email: M.Lim at hw.ac.uk
Homepage: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~myl/
Tel: (44) 131 4514162
Fax: (44) 131 4513327

Dr. Wan Ching Ho
STRI, University of Hertfordshire,
College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
Email: W.C.Ho at herts.ac.uk
Homepage: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqwch/
Tel: (44) 170 7285111
Fax: (44) 170 7284185