The dynamics of intention in collaborative activity

Barbara J. Grosz, Luke Hunsberger
2006 Cognitive Systems Research  
An adequate formulation of collective intentionality is crucial for understanding group activity and for modeling the mental state of participants in such activities. Although work on collective intentionality in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science has many points of agreement, several critical issues remain under debate. This paper argues that the dynamics of intention-in particular, the inter-related processes of decision making and intention updatingplay crucial roles
more » ... n an explanation of collective intentionality, and that it is in these dynamic aspects that coordinated group activity differs most from individual activity. The paper specifies a model of the dynamics of agent intentions in the context of collaborative activity and defines an architecture for a collaborationcapable computer agent based on that model. Through its integrated treatment of group decision-making and coordinated updating of group-related intentions, the model is able to fill an important gap in prior accounts of collective intentionality and to resolve a long-standing debate about the nature of intentions involved in collaborative activity.
doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2005.11.006 fatcat:anrdt3wei5gl3etjwb73kovopy