1 Modelling the Reciprocal Interaction between Believing and Feeling from a Neurological Perspective Zulfiqar A. Memon, Jan Treur VU University Amsterdam, Department of Artificial Intelligence De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam Email: {zamemon, treur }@few.vu.nl URL: http://www.few.vu.nl/~{zamemon, treur} Abstract. By adopting neurological theories on the role of emotions and feelings, an agent model is introduced incorporating the reciprocal interaction between believing and feeling. The model describes how the strength of a belief may not only depend on information obtained, but also on the emotional responses on the belief. For feeling emotions a recursive body loop is assumed. The model introduces a second feedback loop for the interaction between feeling and belief. The strength of a belief and of the feeling both result from the converging dynamic pattern modelled by the combination of the two loops. For some specific cases it is described, for example, how for certain personal characteristics an optimistic world view emerges, or, for other characteristics, a pessimistic world view. 1 Introduction Already during the process that they are generated beliefs trigger emotional responses that result in certain feelings. However, the process of generation of a belief is not fully independent of such associated feelings. In a reciprocal manner, the generated feelings may also have a strengthening or weakening effect on the belief during this process. Empirical work such as described in, for example, (Eich, Kihlstrom, Bower, Forgas, and Niedenthal, 2000; Forgas, Laham, and Vargas, 2005; Forgas, Goldenberg, and Unkelbach, 2009; Niedenthal, 2007; Schooler and Eich, 2000; Winkielman, Niedenthal, and Oberman, 2009), reports such types of effects of emotions on beliefs, but does not relate them to neurological findings or theories. In this paper, adopting neurological theories on emotion and feeling, a computational dynamic agent model is introduced that models this reciprocal interaction between feeling and believing. The computational model, which is based on neurological theories on the embodiement of emotions as described, for example, in (Damasio, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004; Winkielman, Niedenthal, and Oberman, 2009)’s, describes how the generation of a belief may not only depend on an (external) informational source, but also takes into account how the belief triggers an emotional response that leads to a certain feeling. More specifically, in accordance with, for example (Damasio, 1999, 2004), for feeling the emotion associated to a belief a converging recursive body loop is assumed. A second converging feedback loop introduced in the model, inspired the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (Damasio, 1994, 1996), involves the interaction back from the feeling to the belief. Thus a combination of two loops is obtained, where connection strengths within these loops in principle are person- specific. Depending on these personal characteristics, from a dynamic interaction