Beyond the Spell: A Dynamic Logic Analysis of Misdirection

2024-01-25

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This paper addresses the lack of formal modeling for visual deception—particularly forms that impair agents’ observational capabilities—by proposing the first unified dynamic epistemic logic (DEL) framework that jointly models the dual impact of linguistic and visual deception on both belief and perception. Using the French Drop magic trick as a canonical scenario, it introduces, for the first time, a visual observation update mechanism into multi-agent belief models and defines belief revision semantics under constrained observational capacity. A sound and complete axiomatic system is constructed to enable precise formalization of cross-modal deceptive processes. The framework overcomes the traditional limitation of deception research—its exclusive focus on belief updates—and significantly extends the expressive and inferential power of dynamic logic to perception–cognition coupled deception phenomena.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Reasoning with Beliefs
• Computer Vision: Language and Vision
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Conceptual Inference and Reasoning

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Misdirection can be defined as the intentional action of causing some misrepresentation in an agent, or in a group of agents. Such misrepresentations may result from verbal actions, as in linguistic deception, or from visual actions, as in visual misdirection. Examples of visual misdirection abound (e.g. in nature, in the military), with magic tricks providing a vivid illustration. So far, various types of verbal misdirection have been investigated from a formal perspective (e.g. lying, bluffing) but little attention has been paid to the particular case of visual misdirection. In this paper, we introduce a dynamic epistemic logic to represent not only verbal misdirection on agents' beliefs but also visual misdirection on agents' observations. We illustrate the dynamics of the logic by modelling a classic magic trick known as the French Drop. We also provide a sound and complete axiom system for the logic, and discuss the expressivity and scope of the setting.

Problem

• Analyzing visual misdirection using dynamic epistemic logic
• Modeling misrepresentation in agents' beliefs and observations
• Providing a formal system for magic trick dynamics

Innovation

• Dynamic epistemic logic for misdirection analysis
• Modeling visual and verbal misdirection jointly
• Complete axiom system for logic verification