Metacognition in SNePS

Abstract

The SNePS knowledge representation, reasoning, and acting system has several features that facilitate metacognition in SNePS-based agents. The most prominent is the fact that propositions are represented in SNePS as terms rather than as sentences, so that propositions can occur as argu- ments of propositions and other expressions without leaving first-order logic. The SNePS acting subsystem is integrated with the SNePS reasoning subsystem in such a way that: there are acts that affect what an agent believes; there are acts that specify knowledge-contingent acts and lack-of-knowledge acts; there are policies that serve as "daemons," triggering acts when certain propositions are believed or wondered about. The GLAIR agent architecture supports metacognition by specifying a location for the source of self-awareness and of a sense of situatedness in the world. Several SNePS-based agents have taken advantage of these facilities to engage in self-awareness and metacognition.