Multi-agent Systems -- On Personal and Role Mental Attitudes: A Preliminary Dependence-Based Analysis -- An Autonomous Agent Architecture and the Locomotion Problem -- Building Object-Agents from a Software Meta-Architecture -- Agent’s Programming from a Mental States Framework -- Intelligent Tutoring Systems -- The Component Based Model of the Control Knowledge in an Intelligent Tutoring Shell -- Modelling the MCOE Tutor Using a Computational Model -- From a Tridimensional View of Domain Knowledge to Multi-agent Tutoring System -- Natural Language -- A Transfer Dictionary for Words and Bigrams -- Integrating Morphological, Syntactical and Semantical Aspects through Multi-agent Cooperation -- A Massively Parallel Architecture for Natural Language Parsing – Some Results -- Machine Learning and Neural Networks -- Planning and Learning: Put the User in the Loop -- Redundant Covering with Global Evaluation in the RC1 Inductive Learner -- Towards Integrating Hierarchical Censored Production Rule(HCPR) Based Systems and Neural Networks -- Goal-Directed Reinforcement Learning Using Variable Learning Rate -- Logic Programming -- On the Relations between Acceptable Programs and Stratifiable Classes -- An Adaptation of Dynamic Slicing Techniques for Logic Programming -- Argumentative and Cooperative Multi-agent System for Extended Logic Programming -- Knowledge Representation -- Modelling Credulity and Skepticism through Plausibility Measures -- Fuzzy Temporal Categorical and Intensity Information in Diagnosis -- Experiments on a Memory Structure Supporting Creative Design -- Real Time Variable Precision Logic Systems -- Strong Conditional Logic -- Computing Aesthetics -- AI Applications -- Manipulator Robots Using Partial-Order Planning -- Darwinci: Creating Bridges to Creativity -- Scheduling to Reduce Uncertainty in Syntactical Music Structures.

The Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence (SBIA) has been organized by the Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) since 1984. In order to promote research in Artificial Intelligence and scientific interaction among Brazilian AI researchers and practitioners, and with their counterparts worldwide, it is being organized as an international forum since 1993. The SBIA proceedings have been published by Springer-Verlag as a part of the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series since 1995. The XIVth SBIA, held in 1998 at the PUCRS Campus in Porto Alegre, has maintained the international tradition and standards previously established: 61 papers were submitted and reviewed by an international program committee, from this number, 26 papers were accepted and are included in this volume. Of course, organizing an event such as SBIA demands a lot of group effort. We would like to thank and congratulate all the program committee members, and the many reviewers, for their work in reviewing and commenting on the submitted papers. We would also like to thank the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, host of the XIV SBIA, and the institutions which sponsored it - CNPq, CAPES, BANRISUL, among others. Last but not least, we want to thank all the kind people of the Local Organizing Committee, whose work made the event possible.