Cognitive and emotional human models within a multi-agent framework

Abstract

In the industrial field, user behavior has been mainly addressed in terms of rational thinking. High-level cognitive processes investigated by Cognitive Engineering are described as logical or rational. We already proposed a cognitive multi-agent model that provides a framework for the peer user-artifact highlighting the roles, responsibilities and resources of each pertinent entity involved in the human-machine hybrid system. This cognitive model was employed for various experiments in the cockpit that assessed Workload and Situation Awareness [10]. Techniques such as Eye Tracking were also used. Definitely, the cognitive model helps to understand user behaviors. However, we noticed behavioral differences between users that are hardly explainable only by the cognitive model. So we started to investigate the non-cognitive aspects of the users that are their emotions. This paper presents the integration of cognitive and emotional models that comprise on one hand users' Situation Awareness and on the other hand users' Self Awareness. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.