# Simulating Human Behavior with the Psychological-mechanism Agent: Integrating Feeling, Thought, and Action

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19495 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19495/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 8 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jun 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [The Llama 3 Herd of Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21783/) (2024)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [From Individual to Society: A Survey on Social Simulation Driven by Large Language Model-based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03563/) (2024)
- [Humanoid Agents: Platform for Simulating Human-like Generative Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.05418/) (2023)
- [Simulating Human-like Daily Activities with Desire-driven Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06435/) (2024)
- [Evolving Agents: Interactive Simulation of Dynamic and Diverse Human Personalities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02718/) (2024)
- [Can Agents Spontaneously Form a Society? Introducing a Novel Architecture for Generative Multi-Agents to Elicit Social Emergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06750/) (2024)
- [ITCMA: A Generative Agent Based on a Computational Consciousness Structure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20097/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Generative agents have made significant progress in simulating human behavior, but existing frameworks often simplify emotional modeling and focus primarily on specific tasks, limiting the authenticity of the simulation. Our work proposes the Psychological-mechanism Agent (PSYA) framework, based on the Cognitive Triangle (Feeling-Thought-Action), designed to more accurately simulate human behavior. The PSYA consists of three core modules: the Feeling module (using a layer model of affect to simulate changes in short-term, medium-term, and long-term emotions), the Thought module (based on the Triple Network Model to support goal-directed and spontaneous thinking), and the Action module (optimizing agent behavior through the integration of emotions, needs and plans). To evaluate the framework's effectiveness, we conducted daily life simulations and extended the evaluation metrics to self-influence, one-influence, and group-influence, selection five classic psychological experiments for simulation. The results show that the PSYA framework generates more natural, consistent, diverse, and credible behaviors, successfully replicating human experimental outcomes. Our work provides a richer and more accurate emotional and cognitive modeling approach for generative agents and offers an alternative to human participants in psychological experiments.