Defining motivation and cognition in animals
- 1 January 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science
- Vol. 5 (2) , 153-170
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02698599108573387
Abstract
Motivation in an automaton, whether it be artificial or animate, is simply that aspect of the total state that determines the behaviour. In an autonomous agent, which has a degree of self‐control, the motivational state includes a cognitive evaluation of the likely consequences of possible future behaviour. Such evaluation implies optimization with respect to some motivational criterion.Keywords
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