Objectives

Anticipatory behavior is a mechanism, or a behavior, that does not only depend on the past and present but also on predictions, expectations, or beliefs about the future.

The ABiALS workshops are designed to encourage interdisciplinary research on anticipatory behavior in animals, animats, and artificial intelligence systems. Submissions that investigate anticipatory behavior mechanisms are encouraged.

The general aim of the ABiALS workshop is to bring together researchers that are interested in anticipatory adaptive behavior. The expected outcome of the workshop is to discuss and evaluate the different influences that predictions, expectations, goals, desires, or intentions can have on actual behavior, including influences on attention, action decision making and control, as well as learning. To do so, there will be several invited overview talks on anticipatory mechanisms in different disciplines, short presentations of concrete approaches in artificial cognitive systems, and several interactive discussion sessions.

The ABiALS workshop series has been established at the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior Conference 2002 and has been held every two years since then: http://www.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/ABiALS/. So far, two books about the outcomes of the workshops have been published in Springer's LNAI series (2684 in 2003, 4520 in 2007). The general aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers that are interested in anticipatory adaptive behavior. Anticipatory behavior is a mechanism, or a behavior, that does not only depend on the past and present but also on predictions, expectations, or beliefs about the future. The expected outcome of the workshop is to discuss and evaluate the different influences that predictions, expectations, goals, desires, or intentions can have on actual behavior, including influences on attention, action decision making and control, as well as learning. To do so, there will be several invited overview talks on anticipatory mechanisms in different disciplines, short presentations of concrete approaches in artificial cognitive systems, and several interactive discussion sessions.

After three previous successful gatherings, ABiALS 2008 builds on the gained insights and continue to study anticipatory influences on behavior and learning. This year ABiALS will be held one day before the fifth Six-Monthly euCognition Meeting, having as a theme: "The Role of Anticipation in Cognition". The two events are highly synergic, and we anticipate participants from the computational neurosciences, psychology, cognitive sciences, and robotics communities. ABiALS has been supported by the euCognition network as well as by the former MindRACES project, both funded under FP6 by the Cognitive Systems unit.

Over the last decades, it has become increasingly clear that animals most of the time do not simply re-act in their world based on unconditioned or conditioned stimuli, but rather actively operate in their environment highly goal- and future- oriented. Psychology and Neuroscience now suggests that it is the goal itself that triggers behavior and attention. Converging empirical evidence indicates that anticipatory and simulative mechanisms in the brain are crucially involved in a number of (individual and social) cognitive functionalities, including attention, action selection and control, imitation, and mindreading. Moreover, learning is highly influenced by current predictive knowledge and the consequent detection of novelty.

Thus, anticipations come in many forms and influence many cognitive mechanisms. For this reasons a better understanding and further interdisciplinary studies on this topic seem essential for the successful further development of competent, flexible, and highly adaptive artificial cognitive systems.

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