Linking perception and action through motivation and affect

Research into cognitive architectures is described within a framework spanning major issues in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Earlier work on motivation is extended with a cognitive model of reasoning which, together with an affective mechanism, enables consistent decision-making across a variety of cognitive and reactive processes. Cognition involves the control of behaviour within both external and internal environments. The control of behaviour is vital to an autonomous system as it acts to further its goals. Except in the most spartan of environments, the potential available information and associated combinatorics in a perception, cognition, and action sequence can tax even the most powerful agents. The affect magnitude concept solves some problems with BDI models, and allows for adaptive decision-making over a number of tasks in different domains. The cognitive and affective components are brought together using motivational constructs. The generic cognitive model can adapt to different environments and tasks as it makes use of motivational models to direct reactive and situated processes.