There is a psychological model of the mind of two systems. System 1 which is fast and reactionary and system 2 which is slow and methodical. Perhaps the agent's mental design should reflect that.
Preceptors (inputs)
Reaction System
Planning System
System 1 Activities
Object detection
Emotional reactions
Detect emotion in others (hostility, flirting)
Read large words on a billboard
Drive a car on an empty road
Simple language processing
Limitations: Cannot be shut off, little understanding of logic and statistics, has biases.
System 2 Activities
Brace for the starter gun in a race.
Focused attention
Searching
Counting and pattern matching
Evaluating things by value
Multi-step processing
Continuous monitoring of your own behavior: polite, angry, alert...
System Interaction
Both systems are active when a person is awake.
System 1 runs automatically and system 2 is in low-effort mode until needed.
System 1 continuously generates suggestions for System 2: impressions,intuitions, intentions, and feelings.
If endorsed by System 2, impressions and intuitions turn into beliefs, and impulses turn into voluntary actions.
When things go smoothly (most of the time) System 2 adopts the suggestions of system 1 with little or no modifications. We generally believe our first impressions and act on our desires.
When System 1 runs into difficulty, it calls System 2 to support more detailed and specific processing.
System 2 is invoked when an event violates the model of the world System 1 maintains.
Most of what an individual does originates in system 1, but system 2 takes over when things get difficult and it normally has the last word.
The use of System 2 can deplete self-control. Activities that impose high demands on System 2 require self-control. The exertion of self control is depleting and unpleasant. This is called ego depletion.
High mental activities/self-control can result in blood glucose level dropping. Similar to glucose dropping while running. Ingesting glucose can help increase motivation.
Ideas
Individuals have ideas.
An idea can be concrete or abstract. It can be expressed as a verb, a noun, as an adjective, or as a clenched fist.
Psychologists think of ideas as nodes in a network (associative memory).
Causes linked to their effects (virus-> cold)
-things to their properties (lime -> green)
things to their categories (banana -> fruit)
Ideas activate many ideas which in turn activate other ideas.
Only a few of the activated ideas will register in the consciousness.
The flow of ideas can be influenced by context and history. This is called the priming effect. Primed ideas have the ability to prime other ideas although more weakly. This is a rippling effect through small parts of the network of associated ideas.
Look a DF Hack for thoughts on modeling agent motivation. The file https://github.com/DFHack/df-structures/blob/master/df.units.xml contains lists of motivations and traits.
Thoughts based on reading Thinking, Fast and Slow
There is a psychological model of the mind of two systems. System 1 which is fast and reactionary and system 2 which is slow and methodical. Perhaps the agent's mental design should reflect that.
System 1 Activities
System 2 Activities
System Interaction
The use of System 2 can deplete self-control. Activities that impose high demands on System 2 require self-control. The exertion of self control is depleting and unpleasant. This is called ego depletion.
High mental activities/self-control can result in blood glucose level dropping. Similar to glucose dropping while running. Ingesting glucose can help increase motivation.
Ideas