Emotional Valence and the Free-Energy Principle
Figure 4
Static perceptual model with valence: and
.
The agent is exposed to the same sequence of sensory inputs described in the reference scenario (see Figure 2 for legends). Now, the agent becomes reactive to unexpected changes in the environment. (top) The posterior expectation of fluctuates around the true probability of
at each stage in a manner similar to the dynamic perceptual model (see Figure 2). (bottom left) The posterior variance (estimation uncertainty)
maintains a constant baseline during the first and third (low volatility) stages mainly defined by the mood, but starts to show a tendency to fluctuate more freely during the second (high volatility) stage. (bottom right) The change in the posterior variance of
from trial
to trial
as a function of negative (red circle) and positive (blue circle) valences is quite similar to the standard static model (see Figure 3), except for a small offset defined by the mood.