Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Towards an Approach for Modelling Uncertain Theory of Mind in Multi-Agent Systems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Agreement Technologies (AT 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11327))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Applying Theory of Mind to multi-agent systems enables agents to model and reason about other agents’ minds. Recent work shows that this ability could increase the performance of agents, making them more efficient than agents that lack this ability. However, modelling others agents’ minds is a difficult task, given that it involves many factors of uncertainty, e.g., the uncertainty of the communication channel, the uncertainty of reading other agents correctly, and the uncertainty of trust in other agents. In this paper, we explore how agents acquire and update Theory of Mind under conditions of uncertainty. To represent uncertain Theory of Mind, we add probability estimation on a formal semantics model for agent communication based on the BDI architecture and agent communication languages.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that our approach is more general than that, in which ToM could be used to implement similar approaches for teamwork, which is a likely research direction for our work.

  2. 2.

    For example, [31, 32] propose new performatives for argumentation-based communication between Jason agents.

  3. 3.

    Note that we are ignoring any other updates agents execute in their mental attitudes, given we are interested only in the updates agents make on their ToM.

  4. 4.

    In [28], the authors show that trust aggregates not only the sincerity of the source but also the expertise the source has about the information communicated.

  5. 5.

    When considering \(\gamma = 0.1\) and \(\alpha \) and \(\beta >= 0.8\), agents are able to reach shared beliefs communicating only 2 messages.

  6. 6.

    We do not represent the time at which the messages were communicated, but since they were communicated at different times we introduced different values for \(\gamma \).

  7. 7.

    It is similar to committing a type I error in a statistical analysis.

References

  1. Apperly, I.A.: What is theory of mind? concepts, cognitive processes and individual differences. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 65(5), 825–839 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Barlassina, L., Gordon, R.M.: Folk psychology as mental simulation. In: Zalta, E.N. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, summer 2017 edn. (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Black, E., Atkinson, K.: Choosing persuasive arguments for action. In: The 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 905–912 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  4. El Fallah Seghrouchni, A., Dix, J., Dastani, M., Bordini, R.H. (eds.): Multi-Agent Programming. Springer, Boston, MA (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-89299-3

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Bordini, R.H., Hübner, J.F., Wooldridge, M.: Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak using Jason (Wiley Series in Agent Technology). Wiley, Hoboken (2007)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Chwe, M.S.Y.: Rational Ritual. Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cohen, P.R., Perrault, C.R.: Elements of a plan-based theory of speech acts. In: Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence, pp. 169–186. Elsevier (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  8. de Weerd, H., Verheij, B.: The advantage of higher-order theory of mind in the game of limited bidding. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Reasoning About Other Minds, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 751, pp. 149–164 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  9. de Weerd, H., Verbrugge, R., Verheij, B.: Higher-order social cognition in rock-paper-scissors: a simulation study. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 1195–1196 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Finin, T., Fritzson, R., McKay, D., McEntire, R.: KQML as an agent communication language. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and knowledge management, pp. 456–463. ACM (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  11. FIPA, T.: FIPA communicative act library specification. Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (15.02.2018) (2008). http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00037/SC00037J.html

  12. Goldman, A.I.: Theory of mind. In: The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science, 2012 edn. vol. 1, Oxford Handbooks Online (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gopnik, A., Glymour, C., Sobel, D.M., Schulz, L.E., Kushnir, T., Danks, D.: A theory of causal learning in children: causal maps and bayes nets. Psychol. Rev. 111(1), 3 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gopnik, A., Wellman, H.M.: Reconstructing constructivism: causal models, Bayesian learning mechanisms, and the theory theory. Psychol. Bull. 138(6), 1085 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hadidi, N., Dimopoulos, Y., Moraitis, P., et al.: Tactics and concessions for argumentation-based negotiation. In: COMMA, pp. 285–296 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hadjinikolis, C., Siantos, Y., Modgil, S., Black, E., McBurney, P.: Opponent modelling in persuasion dialogues. In: International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 164–170 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Hyslop, A.: Other minds. In: Zalta, E.N. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, spring 2016 edn. (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Jaynes, E.T.: Probability theory as logic. In: Fougère, P.F. (ed.) Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods. Springer, Dordrecht (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0683-9_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Kumar, S., Cohen, P.R.: STAPLE: an agent programming language based on the joint intention theory. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 1390–1391 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Kumar, S., Cohen, P.R., Huber, M.J.: Direct execution of team specifications in STAPLE. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 567–568 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kumar, S., Cohen, P.R., Levesque, H.J.: The adaptive agent architecture: achieving fault-tolerance using persistent broker teams. In: Proceedings of Fourth International Conference on MultiAgent Systems, pp. 159–166 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Labrou, Y., Finin, T.: A semantics approach for KQML - a general purpose communication language for software agents. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information and knowledge Management, pp. 447–455. ACM (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Leudar, I., Costall, A.: On the persistence of the problem of other minds in psychology: chomsky, grice and theory of mind. Theory Psychol. 14(5), 601–621 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Luck, M., McBurney, P.: Computing as interaction: agent and agreement technologies. In: IEEE International Conference on Distributed Human-machine Systems. IEEE Press, Citeseer (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Mayfield, J., Labrou, Y., Finin, T.: Evaluation of KQML as an agent communication language. In: Wooldridge, M., Müller, J.P., Tambe, M. (eds.) ATAL 1995. LNCS, vol. 1037, pp. 347–360. Springer, Heidelberg (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/3540608052_77

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Melo, V.S., Panisson, A.R., Bordini, R.H.: Argumentation-based reasoning using preferences over sources of information. In: 15th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Oren, N., Norman, T.J.: Arguing using opponent models. In: McBurney, P., Rahwan, I., Parsons, S., Maudet, N. (eds.) ArgMAS 2009. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 6057, pp. 160–174. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12805-9_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Paglieri, F., Castelfranchi, C., da Costa Pereira, C., Falcone, R., Tettamanzi, A., Villata, S.: Trusting the messenger because of the message: feedback dynamics from information quality to source evaluation. Comput. Math. Organ. Theory 20(2), 176–194 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Panisson, A.R., Sarkadi, S., McBurney, P., Parsons, S., Bordini, R.H.: On the formal semantics of theory of mind in agent communication. In: 6th International Conference on Agreement Technologies (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Panisson, A.R., Melo, V.S., Bordini, R.H.: Using preferences over sources of information in argumentation-based reasoning. In: 5th Brazilian Conference on Intelligent Systems, pp. 31–26 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Panisson, A.R., Meneguzzi, F., Fagundes, M., Vieira, R., Bordini, R.H.: Formal semantics of speech acts for argumentative dialogues. In: 13th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 1437–1438 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Panisson, A.R., Meneguzzi, F., Vieira, R., Bordini, R.H.: Towards practical argumentation in multi-agent systems. In: Brazilian Conference on Intelligent Systems (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Panisson, A.R., Sarkadi, S., McBurney, P., Parsons, S., Bordini, R.H.: Lies, bullshit, and deception in agent-oriented programming languages. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Trust Workshop, pp. 50–61 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Parsons, S., Sklar, E., McBurney, P.: Using argumentation to reason with and about trust. In: McBurney, P., Parsons, S., Rahwan, I. (eds.) ArgMAS 2011. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 7543, pp. 194–212. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33152-7_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Parsons, S., Tang, Y., Sklar, E., McBurney, P., Cai, K.: Argumentation-based reasoning in agents with varying degrees of trust. In: The 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 879–886 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Rahwan, I., Cebrian, M.: Machine behavior needs to be an academic discipline (2018). http://nautil.us/issue/58/self/machine-behavior-needs-to-be-an-academic-discipline

  37. Rao, A.S.: AgentSpeak(L): BDI agents speak out in a logical computable language. In: Van de Velde, W., Perram, J.W. (eds.) MAAMAW 1996. LNCS, vol. 1038, pp. 42–55. Springer, Heidelberg (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0031845

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Rienstra, T., Thimm, M., Oren, N.: Opponent models with uncertainty for strategic argumentation. In: International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 332–338 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Rosenschein, J.S.: Rational interaction: cooperation among intelligent agents (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Sarkadi, S.: Deception. In: IJCAI, pp. 5781–5782 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Searle, J.R.: Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1969)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  42. Thimm, M.: Strategic argumentation in multi-agent systems. KI-Künstliche Intelligenz 28(3), 159–168 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Vieira, R., Moreira, A., Wooldridge, M., Bordini, R.H.: On the formal semantics of speech-act based communication in an agent-oriented programming language. J. Artif. Int. Res. 29(1), 221–267 (2007)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. Wooldridge, M.: Semantic issues in the verification of agent communication languages. Auton. Agent. Multi-Agent Syst. 3(1), 9–31 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Wooldridge, M.: An Introduction to Multiagent Systems. Wiley, Hoboken (2009)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the partial support from CAPES and CNPq. Special thanks to Francesca Mosca for the support and for the feedback on this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, King’s College London, London, UK

    Ştefan Sarkadi, Peter McBurney & Simon Parsons

  2. School of Technology, PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Alison R. Panisson & Rafael H. Bordini

Authors
  1. Ştefan Sarkadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alison R. Panisson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rafael H. Bordini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Peter McBurney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Simon Parsons
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alison R. Panisson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IMT Lille Douai, Douai, France

    Marin Lujak

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Sarkadi, Ş., Panisson, A.R., Bordini, R.H., McBurney, P., Parsons, S. (2019). Towards an Approach for Modelling Uncertain Theory of Mind in Multi-Agent Systems. In: Lujak, M. (eds) Agreement Technologies. AT 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11327. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17294-7_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17294-7_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17293-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17294-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation