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Autonomous Agents (AAs) are software and robot entities that act on behalf of users or other programs with certain degree of independence and autonomy. In doing so, AAs make use of knowledge about the environment and representations of desires and goals (Franklin & Graesser, 1997; Wang, 2010; Wang, Zatarain, & Valipour, 2017). This type of intelligent system has been crucial for the advance of fields such as software engineering (SE), human-computer interaction (HCI), and artificial intelligence (AI). In these fields, AAs have been designed to carry out tasks that require the imitation of human cognitive functions, including decision making, planning, and reasoning (Ligeza, 1995; Maes, 1995; Sun, 2009). Giving AAs such cognitive functions allow them to carry out more complex tasks by minimizing human intervention. That is why research in these fields (e.g., AI, HCI, and SE) focuses on improving problem solving, reasoning, and communication skills of AAs. Particularly, the research community in the AI field has devoted efforts to create human-like systems for communication and reasoning as well as to reproduce in computer environments the associated brain processes (Ligeza, 1995). In the HCI field some interfaces and mechanisms that improve the interaction of these systems with other agents (computational or human agents) have also been developed (Martínez-Miranda & Aldea, 2005; Perlovsky & Kuvich, 2013).
Evidence shows that emotions influence cognitive functions (Ayesh, Arevalillo-Herráez, & Ferri, 2016; Hurtubise, 1995; Phelps, 2006). The emotional significance of perceived stimuli influences the normal operation of brain processes such as attention, perception, and decision making. According to fields such as psychology and neuroscience, emotions result from the interaction of several cognitive and affective processes, including memory, perception, motivations, and attention (Frijda, 2005; Goldie, 2002; LeDoux, 2000; Smith & Lane, 2016). Emotions are psychophysiological reactions that represent ways of adapting to perceived stimuli from an important object, person, place, event, or memory. Psychologically, emotions alter attention, trigger certain behaviors, and activate relevant associative networks in memory (Wang, 2012). According to Breazeal (1998) and Wang (2010), emotions are necessary to establish long-term memories. In addition, emotions play a key role in learning, from simple reinforcement learning to complex and conscious planning.