Action selection within short time windows

Abstract

In this paper, we study the expansion of a reactive network that is based on a decentralized, heterarchical architecture able to control a hexapod robot. Within this network, problems may occur if more than one task should be addressed within a short time window. Such situations have been studied in so called dual-task experiments in the field of psychology. We take these results as inspiration to develop a structure that can be integrated into our framework. The model focuses on essential aspects of the basic phenomena observed in human subjects as forward masking, backward masking and PRP. While there are detailed models available concentrating on specific paradigms, those do not cover all three types of paradigms. We are not heading for a detailed simulation of the psychological findings, but show how these effects, on a qualitative level, can be implemented in our framework. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.