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The Interplay of Language Processing, Reasoning and Decision-Making in Cognitive Computing

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Natural Language Processing and Information Systems (NLDB 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9103))

Abstract

Integrating language processing, reasoning and decision making is a prerequisite to any breakthroughs in cognitive computing. This paper discusses historical attitudes that have worked against such integration, then describes a cognitive architecture called OntoAgent that illustrates both the feasibility and the payoffs of pursuing integration. Examples are drawn from the Maryland Virtual Patient prototype application, which offers medical trainees the opportunity to diagnose and treat a cohort of cognitively modeled virtual patients that are capable of language processing, reasoning, learning, decision making and simulated action.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Results of reasoning can also populate the agent memory. We do not develop this topic in this paper.

  2. 2.

    The same ontology can be used for representing the meaning of utterances in any language, given an ontological semantic lexicon for that language.

  3. 3.

    See [18] for further discussion of agent parameterization.

  4. 4.

    We can only know for sure that this agent did not undertake goal-related mindreading by looking at the trace of system processing. VP1 could also have generated just ‘No’ as its response.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by Grant N00014-09-1-1029 from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. All opinions and findings expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180, USA

    Sergei Nirenburg & Marjorie McShane

Authors
  1. Sergei Nirenburg
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  2. Marjorie McShane
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Correspondence to Sergei Nirenburg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Chris Biemann

  2. Universität Passau, Passau, Germany

    Siegfried Handschuh

  3. Universität Passau, Passau, Germany

    André Freitas

  4. University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom

    Farid Meziane

  5. Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France

    Elisabeth Métais

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Nirenburg, S., McShane, M. (2015). The Interplay of Language Processing, Reasoning and Decision-Making in Cognitive Computing. In: Biemann, C., Handschuh, S., Freitas, A., Meziane, F., Métais, E. (eds) Natural Language Processing and Information Systems. NLDB 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9103. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19581-0_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19581-0_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19580-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19581-0

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