[alife] CfP: AAAI 2005 Symposium on Anticipation in Cognitive Systems

[Luca Tummolini]

APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING.

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CALL FOR PAPER

FROM REACTIVE TO ANTICIPATORY COGNITIVE EMBODIED SYSTEMS
AAAI 2005 Fall Symposium
November 3-6, 2005, Hyatt Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia
http://www.mindraces.org/events/fss05/

Submission deadline: May 2, 2005
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In order to deal with novel and dynamic 
environments, cognitive systems need 
sophisticated capabilities based on many kinds of 
anticipation.

Expectations and prediction-based control 
mechanisms underlie effective routinized 
behavior. Every step we take relies on the 
expectation that the floor will not give way 
beneath us; the pervasiveness of such 
expectations is highlighted by the surprise we 
experience when we suddenly lose our footing and 
by our ability to control and adjust it by using 
a prediction-control loop. Moreover, the ability 
of building higher order expectations about 
future events has been a major evolutionary and 
cognitive breakthrough for humans. Our 
representations are detached from the present 
here and now, and we can conceive forthcoming 
events - and even situations that will never be 
real. We are able to reason not only about what 
we experience, but about expected, desired and 
feared futures - our behavior can thus be really 
"driven by the future".

The aim of this symposium is to bring together 
scientists from several fields from AI and 
Robotics to Cognitive Science and Neuroscience 
interested in these topics to present, discuss 
and make further progresses toward the 
understanding of anticipatory cognitive systems 
situated in a real dynamic environment.

Some significant questions to be addressed are:
- Which is the specific role of anticipatory 
mechanisms with respect to reactive ones, both in 
an evolutionary and architectural perspective? 
Which are the evolutionary stages leading from 
reactive to anticipatory systems, and from 
simpler to more complex anticipatory mechanisms?
- How do we exploit anticipatory capabilities for 
shifting attention, for selecting the appropriate 
features to perceive the environment and 
interacting with it, for selecting and regulating 
our behavior on the basis of representations of 
the future, expectations and goals?
- Which is the relation between anticipatory processes and symbol formation?
- How emotions and bodily responses are related 
to anticipatory representations? How are 
anticipatory emotions such as fear and hope built 
and exploited?
- How do different anticipatory mechanisms 
integrate and interact? Which kinds of 
representations they exploit? Which are their 
powers and limitations?

SUBMISSIONS

People interested in giving a presentation are 
encouraged to submit a technical paper  (from 
2000 to 6000 words, in PDF). Other participants 
should submit either a position paper, a 
statement of interest or an illustration of work 
in progress they like to discuss.

Submission should be sent to <mailto:fss05 at mindraces.org>fss05 at mindraces.org

By targeting predefined questions and commenting 
challenging scenarios, the discussion will aim to 
the envisioning of complex architectures that 
integrate several anticipatory mechanisms across 
different cognitive levels.

Instructions for authors can be found at the AAAI 
web-site 
http://aaai.org/Symposia/Fall/fall-symposia.html

DEADLINES

May 2, 2005: Submission deadline
May 23, 2005: Notifications of acceptance/rejection
November 3-6, 2005: Symposium

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Christian Balkenius, Lund University, Sweden
Martin V. Butz, University of Würzburg, Germany
Cristiano Castelfranchi (Chair), Institute of 
Cognitive Science and Technology of the CNR, Italy
Andrew Ortony, Northwestern University, Usa
Deb Roy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Usa