Our goal is to develop a Believable Embodied Agent able to dialog with a user, but we aim at making an Agent that can also combine facial expressions in a complex and subtle way, just like a Human Agent does. We first review a taxonomy of communicative functions that our Agent is able to express non-verbally; but we point out that, due to the complexity of communication, in some cases different...

We demonstrate how combining the reasoning components from two existing systems designed for human-robot joint action produces an integrated system with greater capabilities than either of the individual systems. One of the systems supports primarily non-verbal interaction and uses dynamic neural fields to infer the user’s goals and to suggest appropriate system responses; the other emphasises ...

The mechanism by which humans perceive others differs greatly from how humans perceive inanimate objects. Unlike inanimate objects, humans have the distinct property of being "like me" in the eyes of the observer. This allows us to use the same systems that process knowledge about self-performed actions, self-conceived thoughts, and self-experienced emotions to understand actions, thoughts, and...

We build the generic methodology based on machine learning and reasoning to detect the patterns of interaction between conflicting agents, including humans and their assistants. Learning behavior via communicative actions Over last decade, substantial efforts have gone into designing intelligent artificial assistants. These assistants will help human agents in a variety of everyday tasks, as we...

In this paper we address the problem of specifying and verifying systems of communicating agents in a Dynamic Linear Time Temporal Logic (DLTL). This logic provides a simple formalization of the communicative actions in terms of their effects and preconditions. Furthermore it allows to specify interaction protocols by means of temporal constraints representing permissions and commitments. Agent...

The objectives of the study were to describe situations involving instrumental and communicative actions that take place in nursing and to explore the difficulties in communicative action. It was an ethnographic study conducted among nurses from two large hospitals in Spain and Portugal. Data collection took place through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. It was then follo...

The increasing body of research into human and non-human primates' gestural communication reflects the interest in a comparative approach to human communication, particularly possible scenarios of language evolution. One of the central challenges of this field of research is to identify appropriate criteria to differentiate a gesture from other non-communicative actions. After an introduction t...

Research in neuroscience is making progress toward understanding the “dorsal” mechanisms responsible for the fast modulation by optical information of actions such as reaching and grasping. The function of “ventral” visual pathways is not to support perception, as distinct from action. Instead, it is to control extended actions that unfold over longer time scales and draw on optical information...

The present work documents how the logic of a model's demonstration and the communicative cues that the model provides interact with age to influence how children engage in social learning. Children at ages 12, 18, and 24 months (n=204) watched a model open a series of boxes. Twelve-month-old subjects only copied the specific actions of the model when they were given a logical reason to do so--...

The article reviews the problem of forming communicative competencies among junior schoolchildren with persistent learning difficulties. Features speech development this category students are disclosed. Modern scientific ideas about structure universal educational actions considered. Speech and socio-psychological skills defined, which form basis each structural component actions. Method diagno...