The document proposes a cognitive architecture for modeling creative behavior in an artificial agent. The architecture is inspired by dual-process theory and integrates computational creativity approaches. It models the creative process as involving both implicit and explicit cognitive strategies. The focus of attention is used to drive idea generation by modulating the breadth of associations activated in memory. Creative styles emerge from the interaction of relaxed versus focused attention with flat versus peaked memory activation. The architecture is implemented using the PSI cognitive model to test different creative processes and strategies. Future work includes physically executing artworks and modeling the agent's personality.

1. ARTWORK CREATION BY A COGNITIVE
ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATING
COMPUTATIONAL CREATIVITY AND DUAL
PROCESS APPROACHES
Augello(a), I. Infantino(a), A. Lieto(a,b), G. Pilato(a), R. Rizzo(a), and F.
Vella(a)
(a) ICAR - CNR, Viale delle Scienze, edif.11, Palermo, Italy
(b)University of Turin, Corso Svizzera 185, Torino, Italy
Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures November 6-8 –
Lyon

2. Outline
2
 Human Creativity
 A definition of creativity
 Cognitive processes involved in creativity
 Computational Creativity
 Dual Process Theory in Creative Thought
 Modelling creativity in a cognitive agent
 Proposed Architecture
 Some Examples

3. The creative mind (M. Boden, 2004)
3
Creativity is the ability to come up with ideas or artefacts
that are
new, surprising and valuable
Forms of
creativity:
Combinatorial
Explorative
Transformational

4. Cognitive processes involved in
creativity4
Subconscious,
Intuitive
Purposeful, Deliberative

5. Cognitive processes involved in
creativity5
Divergent and Convergent Thinking
(Guilford, 1950)
Blind Variation and Selective
Retention (Campbell, 1960)
Incubation - illumination model
(Wallas, 1926)
Variable Focus of Attention (Gabora,
2002)

6. Dual Process Theory
(Stanovitch e West 2001), (Evans, 2009), (Kahneman,
2011)6
• Fast
• Unconscious
• Implicit/Tacit
• Automatic
• Experential
• Associative
• Holistic
• Impulsive
• Stimulus Bound
System 1
• Slow
• Conscious
• Explicit
• Controlled
• Sequential
• Rule Based
• Analytic
• Reflective
• Higher Order
System 2

7. Dual Process Theory in Creative
Thought7
Processes
involved in:
the generation of
ideas
System 1?
The refinement,
evaluation and/or
selection of ideas
System 2?
Simplistic and wrong:
System1 access to “previous best” behaviour is opposite of
novel idea generation.
System 2 processes can create divergent ideas intentionally
avoiding the obvious solutions

8. Dual Process Theory in Creative
Thought: Four Quadrant Model (Tubb
and Dixon, 2014)8

9. Why Computational Creativity?
9
To produce artificial systems appearing to be creative, to some degree.
To better understand human creativity.
To design programs that can support and enhance human creativity
To explore the potential of Cognitive Architectures
Aaron’s paintings
The Painting Fool

10. Proposed Solution
10
 A cognitive architecture
 for an agent exhibiting a sort of creative
behaviour
 arising from mechanisms of changes in the focus
of attention (Gabora, 2002)
 obtained trough the interaction of different implicit
and explicit strategies (Tubb and Dixon, 2014)

11. Proposed Creative Style
11
•The focus of attention is considered as a
framework that drives the creative process.
•A form of Combinatorial Creativity based
on:
•A Relaxed focus of attention
•A Flat Activation in the memory

12. Evolution of the creative
process12

13. Modeling the creative Agent in the PSI
architecture (Bartl and Dorner, 1998)(Bach et al.,
2006)13

14. Modulators in PSI: a focus on the Resolution
Level
14
Works on the
encoded percept
Communicate
s with the
LTM
Controls the
S1 process
towards S2
process
Modulates wide or more
focused associations
Early stage of modeling
It is correlated in a inverse proportion
w.r.t to the activation modulator

15. Associative Mechanisms in the
Memory15

16. A focus on the first layer
16
Storage
Completion into
the same domain

17. Exploratory and Tacit Strategy
17

18. Checking the results (analytic
strategy)18
The check of the analytic strategy can trigger a refletive strategy
the analytic strategy relies on a face detection
algorithm which checks the presence of a face.

19. Motivation of the artist
19
 Drives the choice of a particular creative
style and the execution of the creative
process
 If too low agent can consider a re-planning by
choosing a different style, or can stop the execution
 It is indirectly influenced by internal and
external evaluation trough the cognitive
urges:
 Competence: effectiveness at fulfilling correctly a set
of creative acts
 Certainty: depends on the amount of styles judged as
of pleasant used by the agent.

20. Internal Evaluation20
Internal Model Executed with few colors
Executed with differnt paintbrush

21. External Evaluation
21

22. Experimental Results
22
• Associations Faces-Flowers Domains
• The similarity is evaluated considering
information regarding color and texture
features
• The color features: information related
to different color spaces (RGB, HSV,
CIE L*a*b*)
• Texture features: Gabor Filters and
Haar Filters

23. Design of an Humanoid Painter
23
Cognitive
Process
Physical Execution

24. Conclusion and Future Works
24
 Summary
 Proposal of a cognitive architecture for creative
agents ispired by theories and models of cognitive
processes underying creativity;
 “Transparent” description of the processes that occur
during the creative process
 Possibility to test possible results obtained inhibiting
or change S1 and S2 strategies
 Future Works
 Physical execution of the artwork
 Modeling of the Artist personality

25. THANKS!
augello@pa.icar.cnr.it
25
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