We show how norms can be used to guide a reinforcement learning agent towards achieving normative behavior and apply the same set of norms over different domains. Thus, we are able to: (1) provide a way to intuitively encode social knowledge (through norms); (2) guide learning towards normative behaviors (through an automatic norm reward system); and (3) achieve a transfer of learning by abstracting policies; Finally, (4) the method is not dependent on a particular RL algorithm. We show how our approach can be seen as a means to achieve abstract representation and learn procedural knowledge based on the declarative semantics of norms and discuss possible implications of this in some areas of cognitive science. Index T erms --Norms, Institutions, Automatic Reward Shaping, Transfer of Learning, Abstract Policies, Abstraction, State-Space Selection, Schema I. I NTRODUCTION In order to be accepted in human society, robots need to comply with human social norms.

Interactions within human societies are usually regulated by social norms. If robots are to be accepted into human society, it is essential that they are aware of and capable of reasoning about social norms. In this paper, we focus on how to represent social norms in societies with humans and robots, and how artificial agents such as robots can reason about social norms in order to plan appropriate behavior. We use the notion of institution as a way to formally define and encapsulate norms. We provide a formal framework built around the notion of institution. The framework distinguishes between abstract norms and their semantics in a concrete domain, hence allowing the use of the same institution across physical domains and agent types. It also provides a formal computational framework for norm verification, planning, and plan execution in a domain.