Bio-inspired cognitive model for sustained attention

Abstract

Sustained attention is an important cognitive function for living organisms. This function allows them to stay focused on a task with a stable performance. This is the main reason that makes this function required by virtual creatures with realistic behaviours. This document presents a bio-inspired cognitive model for sustained attention which takes into account its impairment and performance enhancement factors. The impairment factors are given by the time on task, the circadian rhythm of sleep and by sleep deprivation. Furthermore, it makes use of the motivation as an enhancement factor to deal with the impairments. This model was designed using neuroscientific evidence about the brain structures related with sustained attention tasks and the processes around them. In order to validate the model, a simple psychological task was used to test the virtual agent behaviour. The presented model was designed to be a compatible sub-functionality of a more complex cognitive architecture.