Nicholas R. Wilson

Emotion: A Unified Mechanistic Interpretation from a Cognitive Architecture

This paper reviews a project that attempts to interpret emotion, a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, from a mechanistic point of view, facilitated by an existing comprehensive computational cognitive architecture—CLARION. This cognitive architecture consists of a number of subsystems: the action-centered, non-action-centered, motivational, and metacognitive subsystems. From this perspective, emotion is, first and foremost, motivationally based. It is also action-oriented. It involves many other identifiable cognitive functionalities within these subsystems. Based on these functionalities, we fit the pieces together mechanistically (computationally) within the CLARION framework and capture a variety of important aspects of emotion as documented in the literature.

2009 Special Issue: A motivationally-based simulation of performance degradation under pressure

The CLARION cognitive architecture has been shown to be capable of simulating and explaining a wide range of psychological tasks and data. Currently, two theories exist to explain the psychological phenomenon of performance degradation under pressure: the distraction theory and the explicit-monitoring theory. However, neither provides a detailed mechanistic explanation of the exact processes involved. We propose such a detailed theory within the CLARION cognitive architecture that takes into account motivation and the interaction between explicit and implicit processes. We then use our theory to provide a plausible explanation of some existing data. The data are simulated using the theory within the CLARION cognitive architecture.

Motivational Processes Within the Perception-Action Cycle

The present chapter discusses psychologically well-justified models of motivational processes within the human perception–action cycle (in particular, the CLARION cognitive architecture). First, some background relevant to studying and modeling motivational processes, structures, and representations is discussed. Then, the CLARION cognitive architecture is described. Some simulation results of human motivation and personality from CLARION are then briefly reviewed, and their implications and the future directions outlined.

Accounting for Certain Mental Disorders Within a Comprehensive Cognitive Architecture

This paper explores how mental disorders of certain types might be explained based on mechanisms and processes of human motivation (including drives and goals) and action selection (as well as other related mechanisms and processes), within a generic, comprehensive computational cognitive architecture model. It is hypothesized that such mechanisms may capture the relative invariance within an individual in terms of behavioral inclinations (at different times and with regard to different situations, as well as the necessary variability of behaviors). The hypothesis results from the computational cognitive architecture CLARION. Several simulation tests have been conducted that demonstrate that the model is reasonable and captures some characteristics of certain mental disorders (such as certain types of addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder). The work is a first step in showing the feasibility of integrating mental disorders modeling/simulation into a generic cognitive model (i.e., a cognitive architecture).

Mental disorders within a cognitive architecture

This paper explores how mental disorders of certain types might be explained based on mechanisms and processes of human motivation (including drives and goals) and action selection (as well as other related mechanisms and processes), within a generic, comprehensive computational cognitive architecture model. Several simulation tests have been conducted that demonstrate that the model is reasonable, and captures some characteristics of certain mental disorders. The work is a first step in showing the feasibility of integrating mental disorders modeling/simulation into a cognitive architecture model.

CLARION as a cognitive framework for intelligent virtual agents

This paper examines the CLARION cognitive architecture as a framework for constructing IVAs. CLARION is a unified, comprehensive theory of the mind based on a hybrid architecture able to represent both implicit and explicit knowledge. We examine several features of CLARION as they relate to the construction of IVAs.