Formal Interpretation of a Multi-Agent Society as a Single Agent

Contains fulltext : 194702.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In this paper the question is addressed to what extent the collective processes in a multi-agent society can be interpreted as single agent processes. This question is answered by formal analysis and simulation. It is shown for an example process how it can be conceptualised, formalised and simulated in two different manners: from a single agent (or cognitive) and from a multi-agent (or social) perspective. Moreover, it is shown how an ontological mapping can be formally defined between the two formalisations, and how this mapping can be extended to a mapping of dynamic properties. Thus it is shown how collective behaviour can be interpreted in a formal manner as single agent behaviour.23 p

Modeling of Agent Behavior Using Behavioral Specifications

The behavioral dynamics of a cognitive agent can be considered both from an external and an internal perspective. From the external perspective, behavior is described by specifying (temporal) correlations between input and output states of the agent. From the internal perspective the agent’s dynamics can be characterized by direct (causal) temporal relations between internal, mental states of the agent. The latter type of specifications can be represented in executable format, which allows performing simulations of the agent’s behavior under different (environmental) circumstances. For enabling simulations when only given an external behavioral specification, this has to be transformed first into executable format, and subsequently into a transition system description. An automated procedure for such a transformation is proposed in this paper. The application of the transformation procedure is demonstrated by two simulation examples addressing delayed response behavior and adaptive behavior

An agent-based model for integrated emotion regulation and contagion in socially affected decision making

This paper addresses an agent-based computational social agent model for the integration of emotion regulation, emotion contagion and decision making in a social context. The model integrates emotion-related valuing, in order to analyse the role of emotions in socially affected decision making. The agent-based model is illustrated for the interaction between two persons. Simulation experiments for different kinds of scenarios help to understand how decisions can be affected by regulating the emotions involved, and how these emotions are affected by emotion regulation and contagion

Formal Analysis of Cognitive Agent Behavior: formal theoretical basis

In cognitive systems the behavior of an actor (an agent) can be considered from both an external and an internal perspective. This paper contributes an automated procedure for translating a given external behavioral specification into an executable specification of internal dynamics, by which the external behavioral properties are entailed. Having an executable internal dynamics specification allows automated analysis of an agent's behavior, based on model checking techniques. By a paradigmatic example it is shown how the developed approach can be applied

Verifying Interlevel Relations within Multi-Agent Systems

An approach to handle the complex dynamics of a multi-agent system is based on distinguishing aggregation levels by structuring the system into parts or components. The behavior of every aggregation level is specified by a set of dynamic properties for components and interactions at that level, expressed in some (temporal) language. The dynamic properties of higher aggregation levels in principle can be logically related to dynamic properties of lower levels. This asks for identification and verification of such interlevel relations. In this article it is shown how this problem can be addressed using model checking techniques