An operational model of joint attention - Timing of the initiate-act in interactions with a virtual human

Pfeiffer-Leßmann N, Pfeiffer T, Wachsmuth I. An operational model of joint attention - Timing of the initiate-act in interactions with a virtual human. In: Dörner D, Goebel R, Oaksford M, Pauen M, Stern E, eds. Proceedings of KogWis 2012. Bamberg, Germany: University of Bamberg Press; 2012: 96-97

Embodied cooperative systems: From tool to partnership

Wachsmuth I. Embodied cooperative systems: From tool to partnership. In: Misselhorn C, ed. Collective Agency and Cooperation in Natural and Artificial Systems. Philosophical Studies Series. Vol 122. Cham: Springer International Publishing Switzerland; 2015: 63-79.Understanding others’ intentions and representing them as being able to understand intentions are relevant factors in cooperation, as is the ability to represent shared goals and coordinated action plans (joint intentions). To endow artificial systems with cooperative functionality, they need to be enabled to adopt the goals of another individual and act together with the other to achieve these goals. Such systems may be embodied as robotic agents or as humanoid agents projected in virtual reality (“embodied cooperative systems”). A central question is how the processes involved interact and how their interplay can be modeled. For example, inter-agent cooperation relies very much on common ground, i.e. the mutually shared knowledge of the interlocutors. Nonverbal behaviors such as gaze and gestures are important means of coordinating attention between interlocutors (joint attention) in the pursuit of goals. In the context of cooperative settings, the view that humans are users of a certain “tool” has shifted to that of a “partnership” with artificial agents, insofar they can be considered as being able to take initiative as autonomous entities. This chapter will outline these ideas taking the virtual humanoid agent “Max” as an example

Formalizing joint attention in cooperative interaction with a virtual human

Pfeiffer-Leßmann N, Wachsmuth I. Formalizing joint attention in cooperative interaction with a virtual human. In: Mertsching B, Hund M, Aziz Z, eds. KI 2009: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. Vol LNAI 5803. Berlin: Springer; 2009: 540-547.Crucial for action coordination of cooperating agents, joint attention concerns the alignment of attention to a target as a consequence of attending to each other’s attentional states. We describe a formal model which specifies the conditions and cognitive processes leading to the establishment of joint attention. This model provides a theoretical framework for cooperative interaction with a virtual human and is specified in an extended belief-desire-intention modal logic

Proceedings of KogWis 2012. 11th Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society

The German cognitive science conference is an interdisciplinary event where researchers from different disciplines -- mainly from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and anthropology -- and application areas -- such as eduction, clinical psychology, and human-machine interaction -- bring together different theoretical and methodological perspectives to study the mind. The 11th Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society took place from September 30 to October 3 2012 at Otto-Friedrich-Universität in Bamberg. The proceedings cover all contributions to this conference, that is, five invited talks, seven invited symposia and two symposia, a satellite symposium, a doctoral symposium, three tutorials, 46 abstracts of talks and 23 poster abstracts