Modeling belief and preference in multi-agent support systems

In "multi-agent" systems such as groups, problem solving is an intentional process that causes individual agents to pursue goals, commit to action and adopt beliefs, as well as seek and manipulate related knowledge and information. Because human agents can engage in such action independently, conflicting agent-centric preferences for "products" and "processes" emerge in group problem solving. Although such capabilities have been speculated for machine agents, they have been given only rudimentary conceptual definition and, hence, are far from practical for application to multi-agent support systems. Yet, the same problems of preference seem likely. This paper outlines a conceptual model and supporting logic for intentional processes in multi-agent support systems and then explores agent preferences for problem-solving strategies in more depth.