Developmental and bio-inspired approaches for memory and emotion modelling in cognitive robotics

The aim of this workshop is to present recent research conducted into the field of cognitive neuroscience and study the harmonious relationship between memory and emotion in social cognitive robots. Emotion plays an important part in social interactions, and in order to correctly interact with humans, robotic agents need to understand how emotions can affect memory and vice versa.

We know that emotional states are important for young children to learn positive lifelong abilities, such as anger management, self-esteem, self-awareness, impulse control, empathy and compassion. By using emotional stimuli, robotic agents can develop their memory and grow to be more socially acceptable. By being more socially acceptable, the robotic agents will also be able to interact with their surroundings far easier than before, not to mention interact with their caregivers in a smile and understandable manner.

In cognitive neuroscience, we know that neural mechanisms rely on different impulses from different areas of the brain, i.e., emotional memories are created by interactions between the Amygdala and the Hippocampal complex. By understanding these mechanisms, we will be able to create new models for memory storage in robotic agents.

Bearing these ideas in mind, a synchronic design between biological neural mechanisms and robotic memory is crucial in the advancement of socially acceptable robotic agents. This workshop is intended for an audience from multiple different disciplinary backgrounds and will attempt to provide an equal exposure between observations, robotics and computational neuroscience models.