Modeling Consciousness and Cognition in Software Agents

Here we describe the architectures of two “conscious ” software agents and the relatively comprehensive conceptual and computational models derived from them. Modules for perception, working memory, associative memory, “consciousness, ” emotions, action selection, deliberation, and metacognition are included. The mechanisms implementing the agents are mostly drawn from the “new AI, ” but include both symbolic and connectionist-like features. These models promise to yield testable hypotheses for cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience. We also explore briefly the relationship of these architectures to several recent theories of cognition including embodied cognition and the dynamical systems approach. Autonomous and Cognitive Agents Artificial intelligence pursues the twin goals of understanding human intelligence and of producing intelligent software and/or artifacts. Designing, implementing and experimenting with autonomous agents furthers both these goals in a synergistic way. In particular, designing and implementing within the constraints of a theory of cognition can further the first goal by providing conceptual and computational models of that theory. An autonomous agent (Frankli