Agent-based models for animal cognition: a proposal and prototype

Animal ecologists have successfully applied agent-based models to many different problems. Often, these focus on issues concerning collective behaviors, environmental interactions, or the evolution of traits. In these cases, patterns of interest can usually be investigated by constructing the appropriate multiagent system, and then varying or evolving model parameters. In recent years, however, the study of animal behavior has increasingly expanded to include the study of animal cognition. In this field, the question is not just how or why a particular behavior is performed, but also what its `mental underpinnings' are. In this paper, we argue that agent-based models are uniquely suited to explore questions concerning animal cognition, as the experimenter has direct access to agents' internal representations, control over their evolutionary history, and a perfect record of their previous learning experience. To make this possible, a new modeling paradigm must be developed, w...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: Elske van der Vaart, Rineke Verbrugge
• Keywords: Agent-based Models, Animal Cognition, Artificial Intelligence, ATAL 2008, Intelligent Agents