Traditionally, the study of learning in biological systems was conducted at the expense of overlooking its lesser known counterparts: motivation and emotion. However these phenomena can not be separated.[2] Motivation is the drive that causes any system to do anything – without it, there is no reason to act. Emotions indicate how successful a course of actions have been and whether another set of actions should have been taken instead - they are a constant feedback to the learning system. Learning on the other hand, guarantees that motivation and emotional subsystems are able to adapt to constantly changing conditions.[3]
Thus, in the study of biological organisms, emotions have arisen to prominence as an integral part of any biologically inspired system. But how does any living organism benefit from its emotions? It is crucial to answer this question as we attempt to increasingly employ biologically inspired methods in solving computational problems.
Every creature has innate abilities that accommodate its survival in the world. It can identify food, shelter, partners, and danger. But these "simple mappings between stimuli and reactions will not be enough to keep the organisms from encountering problems."[4] For example, if a given animal knows that its predator has qualities A, B and C, it will escape all creatures that have those qualities. And thus waste much of its energy and resources on non-existent danger.
We can not expect evolution to provide more advanced algorithms for assessing danger, because the predator is also evolving at the same speed. Thus, biological systems need to be equipped with the ability to learn. This learning and re-learning mechanism allows them to adapt to highly complex and advanced situations.[3]
A Learning Organism
To learn effectively, every learning organism needs an evaluation of the current situation and also feedback on how beneficial the results of learning were.[4] On the most part, these evaluation mechanisms are built-in. And so we encounter a new problem: whereas creatures take appropriate measures in real time based on their evaluations, these built-in evaluation procedures are developed in evolutionary time. But all creatures need to learn of new evaluation techniques in their lifetime just as they learn the proper reactions.
This is where the ability to condition emotional reactions comes into play. Biological organisms associate innate emotional stimuli with other stimuli they encounter in the world and thus give them an emotional significance when needed.[4] These evaluations can be monitored to operate at very specific times, specific places or when accompanied by other specific stimuli.
There is another reason why these observations are so significant and that is the creation of artificial systems. These systems do not evolve over time but are designed with certain abilities from the start. Thus, their adaptability must be built-in.