We suggest that the primary motivation for an agent to construct a symbol-meaning mapping is to solve a task. The meaning space of an agent should be derived from the tasks that it faces during the course of its lifetime. We outline a process in which agents learn to solve multiple tasks and extract a store of “cumulative knowledge” that helps them to solve each new task more quickly and accura...

Stigmergy is usually associated with semantically simple problems such as routing. It can be applied to more complex problems by encoding them in the environment through which stigmergic agents interact. We demonstrate this approach by showing how stigmergic agents can plan over a hierarchical task network, specifically a resource-oriented dialect of the TÆMS language. We not only report our su...

This article describes SHPE (Simple Hierarchical Planning Engine), a hierarchical task network planning system designed to generate dynamic behaviours for real-time video games. SHPE is based on a combination of domain compilation and procedural task application/decomposition techniques in order to compute plans in a very short time-frame. The planner has been able to return relevant plans in l...

Research has demonstrated that both attention and emotion influence temporal perception. Even though behavioral findings support a common system for temporal and numerical estimations, no research has investigated the impact of emotion on numerical estimation or the role that attention plays in that process. Using a numerical bisection task, the current research investigated enumeration of emot...

In patient care, maintaining skill competencies during technological advances requires effective knowledge changes processes. One method used consists of task repetition until errors are non-existent and successful demonstration of new learning is complete however, adjusting to numerous procedural changes may be difficult. Determining how to maximize change process during competency acquisition...

The expressiveness of the GOMS language for describing “how-to” knowledge determines what kinds of human activities can be captured by a GOMS task analysis. This paper addresses the adequacy of this framework for representing human behavior in realistically time-pressured, uncertain, and otherwise demanding task environments. Several improvements have been incorporated into a GOMS-like formalis...

We describe a simple and powerful tool for the management of distributed work: the Task Manager. Common tasks may be shared and manipulated independently by a number of people. They are represented as shared to-do lists at the user interface. With the help of the tool, users may organize cooperative tasks, monitor their progress, share documents and services, and exchange messages during task p...

Developing innovative mobile approaches to informal and formal learning raises a challenge to satisfy various stakeholders. Evaluations may focus on examining the nature and quality of learning that occurs when using technological systems, other methods are targeted towards user interactions with the systems. In this paper we highlight a methodology that attempts to address these two analytical...

Many theories about the process of design have been derived from prescriptive or descriptive analysis. There have been few attempts to empirically test these theories. Protocol analysis facilitates detailed inspection of the design process allowing design task analysis across the temporal dimension. Some hypotheses about the design process, derived from the literature, are objectively tested us...

Today, and especially in the future, soldiers have to be able to operate and maintain a large variety of devices connected to the cyber domain in whatever environment they are operating in. This places a high demand on soldiers’ cognitive abilities and mechanisms that humans use to process and store information. In this paper we study how motivation, gained by understanding the purpose of tasks...