Evaluating a Computational Model of Emotion

Spurred by a range of potential applications, there has been a growing body of research in computational models of human emotion. To advance the development of these models, it is critical that we evaluate them against the phenomena they purport to model. In this paper, we present one method to evaluate an emotion model that compares the behavior of the model against human behavior using a standard clinical instrument for assessing human emotion and coping. We use this method to evaluate the Emotion and Adaptation (EMA) model of emotion Gratch and Marsella. The evaluation highlights strengths of the approach and identifies where the model needs further development.