UM4Motivation 2010 - User Models for Motivational Systems: the affective and the rational routes to persuasion UM4Motivation 2010

Recent years have witnessed the growth of three parallel strands of research, all directing towards a more complex cognitive model of rational and extra-rational features, involving emotions, persuasion, motivation and argumentation.
On one side, Persuasive Technology is emerging as a very strong research field, interested in the use of interactive systems to influence human thought and behavior. The international Persuasive conference is now well established at its 5th edition, and a series of other small events, like the Persuasive Technology Symposia (with AISB in 2008 and 2009), confirm the importance of the field in the research landscape.
Parallel to this, Affective Computing is interested in the use, understanding and modelling of emotions and affect in computer systems. From the early 90s, which also saw two UM workshops (at UM03 and UM05), Affective Computing is now an established discipline, with an international conference (ACII), a professional society (HUMAINE) and, recently, a new journal (IEEE Trans. on Affective Computing).
Finally, Argument and Computation is also emerged in the past decade as a research strand interested in computational models of theories of argumentation and persuasion coming from Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence. Again, an increasing number of events dedicated to the topic, including two annual workshop series (Argumentation in MultiAgent Systems, now at its 7th edition, and Computational Models of Natural Argument, at its 10th edition) and a biennial international conference (COMMA), have recently been complemented by a new journal (Argument and Computation).

This workshop intends to sit at the intersection between these three areas of research, and focus on how adaptive and personalised systems can motivate people, for instance to improve health, or to use sustainable resources, or to achieve goals or specific skills, by using persuasion and argumentation techniques and/or techniques involving the affective and emotional sphere.