On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the special session "Computational Cognitive Dynamics in Human-Robot/AI/Agent Interaction: Subjectivity, Context, and Bounded Rationality" was held at the 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2026), Kitakyushu International Conference Center. Research Director Inamura organized the session as one of its organizers and also presented his own work.
Aims of the Session
The session set out to reframe interaction between people and robots, AI, and agents in computational terms, along three axes: subjectivity, context, and bounded rationality. Rather than describing human cognition within a framework of ideal rationality, the contributions sought to formalize it as a dynamic process that operates under limited resources and in a context-dependent manner.
The organizers were Tetsunari Inamura (Tamagawa University), Kazunori Terada (Gifu University), Michita Imai (Keio University), Chie Hieida (The University of Electro-Communications), and Yosuke Fukuchi (Tokyo Metropolitan University).
Talk: Self-Efficacy Seen through the Free Energy Principle
Inamura gave a talk titled "Self-Efficacy under the Free Energy Principle: A Mathematical Model for Adaptive Coaching AI" - a new attempt to formalize self-efficacy, a concept from psychology, in mathematical terms under the framework of the Free Energy Principle.
Self-efficacy has so far been treated mainly as a subjective measure obtained through questionnaires. If it can instead be described within a computational framework based on prediction and prediction error, then AI and robots can estimate a user's state of self-efficacy and design interventions that raise it. This work provides a theoretical foundation for the kind of agent that this project, Self-Mirroring Twins, aims to realize: one that supports human agency and self-efficacy.
Event Overview
- Conference: 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2026)
- Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
- Venue: Kitakyushu International Conference Center
- Session: Special Session "Computational Cognitive Dynamics in Human-Robot/AI/Agent Interaction: Subjectivity, Context, and Bounded Rationality"
- Organizers: Tetsunari Inamura (Tamagawa University), Kazunori Terada (Gifu University), Michita Imai (Keio University), Chie Hieida (The University of Electro-Communications), Yosuke Fukuchi (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
- Presentation: Tetsunari Inamura, "Self-Efficacy under the Free Energy Principle: A Mathematical Model for Adaptive Coaching AI"