Connectionists: CFP: “Computational Modeling of Cognition-Emotion Interactions - Workshop at CogSci 2014

[Eva Hudlicka]

Workshop on  “Computational Modeling of Cognition-Emotion Interactions:   
Relevance to Mechanisms of Affective Disorders and Psychotherapeutic Action”

https://people.cs.umass.edu/~hudlicka/cogsci2014-cog-em.html

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In conjunction with CogSci 2014  (http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/index.html)
July 23, 2014
Quebec City, Quebec
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Objectives
 
Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in developing computational models of emotion and emotion-cognition interaction, 
within the emerging area of computational affective science.  At the same time, emotion theorists and clinical psychologists have been
 recognizing the importance of moving beyond descriptive characterizations of affective disorders, and identifying the underlying 
mechanisms that mediate both psychopathology and psychotherapeutic action.

Computational models of cognition-emotion interactions have the potential to facilitate more accurate assessment and diagnosis of 
affective disorders, and to provide a basis for more efficient and targeted approaches to treatment, through an improved understanding
 of the mechanisms of therapeutic action.

In spite of the significant synergy that could result from a dialogue among researchers and practitioners in affective modeling, 
emotion research and clinical psychology, limited interaction exists among these communities. The goal of this workshop is to
 provide a forum for interdisciplinary dialog among the members of these research communities, and explore how computational
 models of emotion-cognition interaction can help elucidate the mechanisms mediating affective disorders, as well as the
 mechanisms of therapeutic action.

Workshop Format

To facilitate cross-disciplinary discussions and interaction, the workshop format will emphasize moderated panels, small working groups, 
and open discussion, in addition to the traditional paper sessions.  To this end, we encourage submissions of proposals for discussion topics, 
panels and small working groups.

Keynote address:  Keith Oatley, University of Toronto –
 “The cognitive bases of emotions, emotional disorders and psychotherapy.”

Submission Guidelines

Interested participants should submit extended abstracts (1-3 pages), discussion and working group topics (1 page), or panel proposals (1-2 pages)
 to hudlicka at cs.umass.edu by June 1.  

Relevant topics include:

·       Which processes mediating cognition-emotion interactions are sufficiently well understood to support 
        computational modeling (e.g., affective biases on attention & perception; emotion regulation; cognitive appraisal)?
·       How can models of these processes contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic action, 
         across different types of psychotherapies (e.g., cognitive, psychodynamic, emotion-focused)?
·       What are the relative benefits and drawbacks of the dominant theoretical perspectives on emotion with respect
        to computational models of emotion-cognition interaction and therapeutic action (e.g., discrete / categorical models,
         dimensional models (PAD), componential models)?
·       What are the best representational and reasoning approaches for modeling cognitive-affective schemas and their transformation
        during therapy?  Can we characterize the differences in these transformations across distinct therapeutic approaches
        (e.g., cognitive, metacognitive, emotion-focused, motivational interviewing, psychodynamic)?
·       What are the most appropriate computational methods for modeling the distinct modalities of affective processes 
        (e.g., physiological / somatic, expressive /behavioral, cognitive)?
·       How can we model intermodal interactions across processes operating at different time scales?
·       What types of data are necessary to develop these models, and how can these be obtained?
·       For a given affective process and modality, what criteria determine the best level of model resolution 
        (e.g., models of lower-level processes via connectionist methods vs. higher-level symbolic models)?
·       How can we validate computational models of cognition-emotion interactions and therapeutic action, and 
        what are the limits of this validation (e.g., validation of detailed symbolic models hypothesizing specific internal mental
       constructs, such as goals or plans, may not be possible with current technologies).
 
Addressing these questions from a multi-disciplinary perspective will provide the context within which concrete gaps
 in both theoretical knowledge and methodologies can be identified, and research priorities established.   

Submitters will receive notification of acceptance/rejection by June 15.

For more information see:  https://people.cs.umass.edu/~hudlicka/cogsci2014-cog-em.html

Post-Workshop Publication

The workshop papers will be published as a separate report, and both the papers and the presentations will be made available
 on the workshop web site. The workshop organizers will also pursue the possibility of a special issue of a relevant journal (TBD)
 and/or an edited volume in the Affective Science Series published by Oxford University Press.

Program Committee

Eva Hudlicka, Chair, Psychometrix Associates & University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Michael Arbib, University of Southern California
Jorge Armony, McGill University
Luc Beaudoin, Simon Fraser University
Jean-Marc Fellous, University of Arizona
Ian Horswill, Northwestern University
Richard Lane, University of Arizona
Matthias Scheutz, Tufts University



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Eva Hudlicka, PhD
Psychometrix Associates, Inc.
School of Computer Science - U.Mass.-Amherst

psychometrixassociates.com





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