Can people learn causal relationships about the world from someone’s emotions? We present a computational model integrating observational causal learning with emotional information, which uses emotional displays to disambiguate the beliefs, desires, and knowledge of other agents, in turn allowing causal inferences about the world. We compared our model predictions to human causal judgements on two observational learning tasks involving multiple possible causes or multiple possible outcomes. Across three studies (N = 129,127,125), emotional displays (compared to actions alone) led people to interpret agents’ beliefs differently, which in some contexts resulted in different causal inferences. Our model closely reflected these patterns of belief and causal inference and revealed new insights on how people learn causal relationships from others’ emotions.

Modeling Causal Inference from Emotional Displays

People have the fascinating ability to infer causality by observing other humans’ actions. We modelled this process using a Bayesian rational agent model and showed how people can reason about another agent’s beliefs and, by extension, infer the world’s causal structure. We compared the model’s predictions against humans’ causal judgements on a novel inference task. Participants (N = 171) were shown a dynamic scene depicting either a human agent, robot agent, or both agents acting on two objects sequentially before observing an outcome. After observing the human (vs the less intentional robot) agent, people were more likely to infer that both objects (in sequential order) caused the outcome. When two agents of different intentionality were shown, people favored the object that the intentional agent interacted with as the cause of the outcome. Our model captured these inference patterns well and revealed insights into reasoning about semi-intentional agents and multi-agent contexts.

Learning from Agentic Actions: Modelling Causal Inference from Intention

FT52: Causation and Explanation 2

poster

Join us for CogSci2022! Our 44th Annual Conference will be centered around the theme of diversity, with an accompanying range of keynotes and invited speakers who themselves highlight the diversity of our field. Our three symposia are Cognition across Diverse Populations, Cognition within Diverse Societies, and Global Challenges for Cognitive Science. The conference is being offered in a fully hybrid environment for onsite and online attendees.
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CogSci 2022

The 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society highlighted research on the theme Cognitive Diversity in addition to the full breadth and diversity of research topics offered by the society’s membership. 






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Poster Session 3 -  A: AI, Computer Science and Computer Models

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**Dear Colleagues,**

Welcome to the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society! 

This year’s conference brings together the latest research from all Cognitive Science and also highlights this year’s theme **Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds.** 

The program features four plenary speakers: Friederike Range (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna), Onur Güntürkün (Ruhr University Bochum), Julia Fischer (University of Göttingen), and Erich Jarvis (The Rockefeller University). The keynotes and invited symposia showcase the broad spectrum of ideas that encompass the conference theme of comparative cognition. 

Further, the program includes the Rumelhart Prize keynote presentation by Susan Goldin-Meadow (University of Chicago), and symposia to celebrate the winner of the Elman Prize: Wei Ji Ma (New York University), the Heineken Award winner Robert Zatorre (McGill University), and the Robert J. Glushko Dissertation Prizes session.

The program committee for CogSci 2021 received 1,025 submissions, including 710 full papers, 275 member abstracts, 8 publication-based talks, as well as 15 proposals for symposia, and 17 for workshops and tutorials. After a rigorous review process, the committee selected 152 papers for oral presentation and inclusion in the conference proceedings (14.8%), 332 papers for poster presentation and inclusion in the proceedings (32.4%), and 175 papers for poster presentation with inclusion of abstracts in the proceedings (17.1%) We also selected 275 submitted member abstracts. In addition, we accepted 6 publication-based talks, 12 symposia, and 9 workshops and tutorials to make for an exciting and inclusive program.

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CogSci 2021

The Cognitive Science Society brings together researchers from around the world who hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. The mission of the Society is to promote Cognitive Science as a discipline, and to foster scientific interchange among researchers in various areas of study, including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education. The Society is a non-profit professional organization and its activities include sponsoring an annual conference and publishing the journals Cognitive Science and TopiCS.

Dennis W.H. Teo

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Modeling Causal Inference from Emotional Displays

Learning from Agentic Actions: Modelling Causal Inference from Intention

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