[alife] 2nd CFP: The 2nd Symposium on Human Memory for Artificial Agents in AISB 2011

[Cyril Brom]

------------***apologies if you receive multiple copies***---------

The 2nd Symposium on Human Memory for Artificial Agents A one day
symposium on the 4th April 2011 In conjunction with the AISB 2011
Convention University of York, United Kingdom

(The symposium is supported by the European FP7 Project LIREC)

Since decades ago the idea of creating computational representation of
experience for agents has been mentioned often in cognitive modelling
literatures. On one hand, researchers in the early 90’s argued, in the
context of the Turing Test, that it is questionable whether any computer
in the future can pass the Test without the ability to experience. On
the other hand, embodied AI emphasizes the on-going interaction between
agents and their environment, in which object representation evolves
from the experience of the agents with these objects. Here the term
“experience” is not as defined in machine learning, but as similar to
the whole cognitive concept of human memory. It includes a range of
cognitive processes that our memory operates effortlessly: perceiving,
encoding, storing, retrieving, generalising and forgetting of events.
Up to date, various research projects have attempted to create agents
that are more natural, believable and behave in human plausible ways;
however, memory components in these models are rather static and loosely
connected to each other. Another direction which has captured a lot of
attention is the influence of emotion in long-term episodic memory. It
is important to identify the possible ways of integrating various known
emotion models to artificial agents with computational human memory,
particularly those designed for social interactions with human users.
Additionally, many existing models do not take into consideration the
bio-mechanisms of human memory operations such as those involved in
retrieval and forgetting processes.
Some recent research shows that artificial agents equipped with a subset
of the above listed human memory processes are perceived as more natural
and have the potential of improving human-agent interaction. Consistent
with these findings, we envision that the existence of more
comprehensive human-like memory processes will allow artificial agents
to maintain behaviour coherence and plausibility, thus may lead to the
establishment of longer term interaction/relationship with humans.
Back in AISB 2010, the 1st Symposium on Human Memory for Artificial
Agents brought together researchers from the fields of cognitive
science, artificial intelligence, and the social sciences to discuss
important aspects of human memory suitable to be modelled in artificial
intelligent agents. To continue this direction of creating a better
understanding of human memory and its roles in modelling artificial
cognition and social processes, more efforts are required to investigate
the interactions between its essential components such as short-term,
working memories, semantic knowledge and episodic experiences among others.
This symposium aims to gather interdisciplinary perspectives on the
above issues and review work done so far to achieve a better
understanding of which, when and how human-like memory can contribute to
artificial agents modelling.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

•       Role of memory in artificial agents
•       Type of memory and application
•       Memory and emotion modelling
•       Representation and generalization of experiences
•       Human-agent/human-robot interaction history
•       Effective memory data collection
•       Privacy issues related to data collection
•       Bio-inspiration to memory modelling
•       Memory mechanisms for encoding, storage and retrieval
•       Memory influence on reasoning and decision-making
•       Modelling forgetting in episodic memory
•       Ethological aspects of memory
•       Spatial memory
•       Memory and adaptation

Submission
We are seeking submissions of original papers (up to 8 pages - with
finished work and original research results) and short papers (up to 4
pages - position papers with work-in-progress research) that fit well
with the symposium theme and topics. Papers should be submitted through
the EasyChair system
(http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hmaa11). You will have to
register with EasyChair if you do not already have an account. Please
submit your paper in PDF format (according to the AISB 2011 formatting
guidelines - templates available on the AISB 2011 convention website).
All submissions will be peer reviewed. Authors of accepted contributions
will be asked to prepare the final versions for inclusion in the
symposium proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper will
be required to register and attend the symposium to present their work.

Important Dates
3rd January 2011: Submission deadline
17th January 2011: Notification for paper acceptance
25th February 2011: Submission of camera-ready final papers
4th April 2011: Symposium

Program Committee
(Confirmed)
Heuvelink Annerieke, TNO Defence
Cyril Brom, Charles University Prague (co-chair)
Joanna Bryson, University of Bath
Nate Derbinsky, University of Michigan
Sibylle Enz, University of Bamberg
Stan Franklin, University of Memphis
Wan Ching Ho, University of Hertfordshire (co-chair)
Mei Yii Lim, Heriot-Watt University (co-chair)
Nikolaos Mavridis, United Arab Emirates University
Andrew Nuxoll, University of Portland
Christopher Peters, Coventry University
Debbie Richards, Macquarie University
Alexei Samsonovich, George Mason University
Holger Schultheis, University of Bremen
Dan Tecuci, University of Texas
(To be confirmed)
Owen Holland, University of Essex

Official Website
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqwch/HMAA11.html

Contact
Wan Ching Ho
School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane,
Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
Email: W.C.Ho at herts.ac.uk
Homepage: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqwch/
Tel: (44) 170 7285111
Fax: (44) 170 7284185

Mei Yii Lim
Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, EH14 4AS, UK
Email: M.Lim at hw.ac.uk
Homepage: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~myl/
Tel: (44) 131 4514162
Fax: (44) 131 4513327

Cyril Brom
Software and Computer Science Education, Charles University in Prague
Email: brom at ksvi.mff.cuni.cz
Homepage: http://ksvi.mff.cuni.cz/~brom/
Tel: (420) 221 914 216
Fax: (420) 221 914 281