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Modelling the Reciprocal Interaction between
Believing and Feeling from a Neurological Perspective
Zulfiqar A. Memon 1,2 and Jan Treur 1
1 VU University Amsterdam, Department of Artificial Intelligence
De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam
2 Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (Sukkur IBA),
Air Port Road Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan
{zamemon,treur}@few.vu.nl
http://www.few.vu.nl/~{zamemon,treur}
Abstract. By adopting neurological theories on the role of emotions and feel-
ings, an agent model is introduced incorporating the reciprocal interaction be-
tween believing and feeling. The model describes how the strength of a belief
may not only depend on information obtained, but also on the emotional re-
sponses on the belief. For feeling emotions a recursive body loop is assumed.
The model introduces a second feedback loop for the interaction between feel-
ing and belief. The strength of a belief and of the feeling both result from the
converging dynamic pattern modelled by the combination of the two loops. For
some specific cases it is described, for example, how for certain personal char-
acteristics an optimistic world view emerges, or, for other characteristics, a pes-
simistic world view.
1 Introduction
Already during the process that they are generated beliefs trigger emotional responses
that result in certain feelings. However, the process of generation of a belief is not
fully independent of such associated feelings. In a reciprocal manner, the generated
feelings may also have a strengthening or weakening effect on the belief during this
process. Empirical work such as described in, for example, (Eich, Kihlstrom, Bower,
Forgas, and Niedenthal, 2000; Forgas, Laham, and Vargas, 2005; Forgas, Goldenberg,
and Unkelbach, 2009; Niedenthal, 2007; Schooler and Eich, 2000; Winkielman,
Niedenthal, and Oberman, 2009), reports such types of effects of emotions on beliefs,
but does not relate them to neurological findings or theories. In this paper, adopting
neurological theories on emotion and feeling, a computational dynamic agent model
is introduced that models this reciprocal interaction between feeling and believing.
The computational model, which is based on neurological theories on the embodie-
ment of emotions as described, for example, in (Damasio, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004;
Winkielman, Niedenthal, and Oberman, 2009)'s, describes how the generation of a
belief may not only depend on an (external) informational source, but also takes into
account how the belief triggers an emotional response that leads to a certain feeling.
More specifically, in accordance with, for example (Damasio, 1999, 2004), for feeling
the emotion associated to a belief a converging recursive body loop is assumed. A
 
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