[ACT-R-users] computational basis of act-r

[Troy Kelley]

                      Phil Pavlik                                                                                                       
                      <ppavlik at andrew.cmu.edu>  To:    act-r-users at act-r.psy.cmu.edu                                                    
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                      Sent by:                  Subject:  RE: [ACT-R-users] computational basis of act-r                                
                      act-r-users-admin at act-r.                                                                                          
                      psy.cmu.edu                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                        
                      01/14/2003 12:12 PM                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        








-It seems to me that it is a mistake to expect ACT-R to compete with
-oscillation theory (connectionism) by asking for a close correspondence
-to brain functioning.  While some correspondence is desirable, a close
-correspondence will make our efforts at modeling high level processes as
-difficult as the connectionist's efforts.

Speaking of ACT-R's relation to connectionism, could someone out there
(Christian?) explain in some detail exactly what makes parts of ACT-R's
architecture "subsymbolic"?  If I understand the subsymbolic parts of
ACT-R, they are the algorithms which control the "continuously varying,
qualitative properties of the symbolic cognitive elements" (from the ACT-R
1998 book, pg 13).  But what about them is "subsymbolic".. I am assuming
they operate in parallel, and that they are not distributed.  Any other
characterizations that make them subsymbolic?

Troy