Who Needs Emotions? The Brain Meets the Robot

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it up (Breazeal, 2002b). In HRI studies, we have found that Kismet’s expression
elicits sympathy responses in people (Breazeal, 2002b).
Surprise
Children show surprise when there are violations of expected events or as a
response to discovery, such as an “Aha!” experience. Hence, cognitive processes
play an important role in the emergence of this early emotion. Given
that simple cognitions elicit surprise, some emotion theorists do not consider
surprise to be a basic emotion, even though it appears early in infancy
(around 6 months of age). For Kismet, surprise is a startle response elicited
by a sudden and unexpected event, such as a quickly looming stimulus.
Interest
In humans and other animals, interest motivates exploration, learning, and
creativity. It mobilizes the creature for engagement and interaction. It serves
as a mechanism of selective attention that keeps the creature’s attention
focused on a particular object, person, or situation and away from other
distractions that impinge upon its senses. For Kismet, it serves a similar function
with respect to focusing attention and motivating exploration and
interaction.
Boredom
In Kismet, boredom is treated as a basic emotion that arises when the robot
is not stimulated for a while. Over the long term, this prolonged absence
will elicit sorrow. In the shorter term, boredom motivates searching behaviors
similar to interest; however, its function is to come into contact with a
desired stimulus, rather than to engage one that is already present.
Affective Releasers
The affective releasers assess the value of perceptual inputs arising from the
environment. They are similar to the perceptual releasers of the cognitive
system, but rather than being only a perceptual interpretation of stimuli into
objects and events, they are also cognitively appraised in relation to the
motivational state of the robot and its current goals. Beyond simple percep-