VORTRAG ********* Oesterreichisches Forschungsinstitut fuer Artificial Intelligence (OFAI), Freyung 6/6, A-1010 Wien Tel.: +43-1-5336112-19, Fax: +43-1-5336112-77, Email: sec@ofai.at Prof. Arvid Kappas, PhD Jacobs University Bremen "Much Ado about Nothing: Are Emotions Really Important?" The scientific study of emotion has seen ups and downs. At the outset of the second decade of the third millennium, it is definitely en vogue to study emotion; it is common wisdom that affect had been neglected by fields as far apart as artificial intelligence and economics that finally might understand its importance. But as researchers try to get to terms with emotions, unexpected hurdles loom large. Separating constructs such as emotion, cognition, and motivation becomes increasingly difficult in the light of experimental research and evidence from the neurosciences. Similarly, it is now apparent that emotional components, such as subjective experience, expression, and physiological activation have only low cohesion. What to do? We could pretend that life is simple and that every smile expresses happiness, that there are only seven emotions, that we always know when to show what to whom, and that all emotions are individual in nature. Or we could defect to the behaviorists of a century ago or the neo-behaviorists of a decade ago and throw emotions out with the bath water. Arvid Kappas will discuss some of the (current) challenges and promises of emotion research. ********* Time: Tuesday, 25th January 2011, 18:30 sharp Location: Oesterreichisches Forschungsinstitut fuer Artificial Intelligence, OFAI Freyung 6, Stiege 6, 1010 Wien. OESTERREICHISCHES FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FUER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Univ.-Prof. Ing. Dr. Robert Trappl *********