From grayw at rpi.edu Sat Nov 8 10:38:41 2003 From: grayw at rpi.edu (Wayne Gray) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 10:38:41 -0500 Subject: [ACT-R-users] Human Performance Modeling -- new Technical Group Message-ID: Friends, Dick Pew and I are co-organizing a new Technical Group on Human Performance Modeling that will be based in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. The requirements to form a new TG include getting 200 people (min) to express their support. HFES sees TGs as a way of bringing new blood into the organization so they are quite happy if half of the supporters are NOT current members of HFES. If you are at all interested please go to: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/cogworks/hpm-tg/ There you will find: A. Information on "Why" a new TG in HFES on HPM is a good idea; an assessment of its likely impact on existing modeling conferences and groups; why situating the HPM-TG within HFES is a good idea; the philosophy of the HFES Conferences that makes them an ideal venue for presenting work-in-progress; etc. B. A draft of the "Proposal" that Dick and I will submit to HFES' Council of Technical Groups once we obtain > 200 expressions of interest C. A form that asks you for your name, email, affiliation, and a few questions. Once you click "submit" your info will be saved to a dbase. I think this is an exciting venture and an idea whose time has come. It is in part a result of the continuing inspiration I have drawn from Newell & Card (1985) over the years, as well as a direct result of the excitement that greeted the recent special issue that Mike Byrne and I did for the Human Factors journal. So -- please check out the website, read our materials, download them, and sign up as a supporter of this new group. Wayne Byrne, M. D., & Gray, W. D. (2003). Returning human factors to an engineering discipline: Expanding the science base through a new generation of quantitative methods - Preface to the special section. Human Factors, 45(1), 1-4. Newell, A., & Card, S. K. (1985). The prospects for psychological science in human-computer interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 1(3), 209-242. -- **Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer** Wayne D. Gray; Professor of Cognitive Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Carnegie Building (rm 108) ;;for all surface mail & deliveries 110 8th St.; Troy, NY 12180 EMAIL: grayw at rpi.edu, Office: 518-276-3315, Fax: 518-276-8268 for general information see: http://www.rpi.edu/~grayw/ for On-Line publications see: http://www.rpi.edu/~grayw/pubs/downloadable_pubs.htm Work is infinite, time is finite, plan accordingly. **Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer** From sarah.schimke at cognition.uni-freiburg.de Mon Nov 10 10:53:05 2003 From: sarah.schimke at cognition.uni-freiburg.de (Sarah Schimke) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 16:53:05 +0100 Subject: [ACT-R-users] matching score Message-ID: Hello, I have the following problem with an act-r model: the model works on the symbolic level and also when the subsymbolic computations are turned on by ":esc". But when I'm adding noise by ":ans", there are a lot of failures of retrieval because the different chunks take matching scores that I don't understand. In particular, the matching score turns to "nil" for chunks the model is trying to retrieve directly (by a request like for example "+retrieval> =goal"), so that a failure gets retrieved instead of the chunk. This happens often, but not all the time. Why does this happen? Sarah Schimke university of Freiburg From db30 at andrew.cmu.edu Mon Nov 10 11:36:41 2003 From: db30 at andrew.cmu.edu (db30 at andrew.cmu.edu) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 11:36:41 -0500 Subject: [ACT-R-users] matching score In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6493697.1068464201@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> --On Monday, November 10, 2003 4:53 PM +0100 Sarah Schimke wrote: > > Hello, > > I have the following problem with an act-r model: > the model works on the symbolic level and also when the > subsymbolic computations are turned on by ":esc". > But when I'm adding noise by ":ans", there are a lot of > failures of retrieval because the different chunks take > matching scores that I don't understand. > In particular, the matching score turns to "nil" for chunks > the model is trying to retrieve directly (by a request like > for example "+retrieval> =goal"), so that a failure gets > retrieved instead of the chunk. This happens often, but not > all the time. > Why does this happen? > A retrieval failure is caused when the activation (or matching score) is below the retrieval threshold. When there is no noise (:ans not set) there is no variability in the activations, and if a chunk is above the threshold it will always be above the threshold. Once the noise is turned on that's going to change because there will be a random amount of noise added to the activation when a retrieval is attempted, and thus it may end up below the retrieval threshold. How you deal with that depends on why you are turning on the noise and what you're trying to get out of the model. If you don't want any failures then one possibility is to just set the retrieval threshold (the :rt parameter) very low so that no activation is likely to ever go below it. The case with a direct retrieval is a special one because that is the only chunk attempted. If its activation (plus noise) is above the thereshold it is retrieved, but if not it fails - there is no partial matching on a direct retrieval. Seeing nil for the matching score doesn't sound right, and I can't seem to find where that would happen because when I turn on the traces I still see numeric values during a failure for a direct retrieval: CG-USER(5): (run .1) Matching production Test. Matching production Test Time 0.000: Test Selected Sources of activation are: nil Adding noise -0.097 Partial matching chunk G with activation -0.097 Matching score of chunk G is -0.097. CHUNK G match score -0.097 is below threshold 10.000: failure. Can you provide a trace or more details as to where you are seeing nil because that sounds like a bug. Hope that helps, Dan From db30 at andrew.cmu.edu Mon Nov 10 12:10:34 2003 From: db30 at andrew.cmu.edu (db30 at andrew.cmu.edu) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:10:34 -0500 Subject: [ACT-R-users] matching score In-Reply-To: <6493697.1068464201@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> References: <6493697.1068464201@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> Message-ID: <8527211.1068466234@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> To follow up on my own reply, is it in the stepper window of the environment where you're seeing nil for the matching score? I notice that direct retrievals aren't handled well by the stepper in general and it's probably even more apparent for successful direct retrievals because they don't even generate an event. So, if that's where you were seeing it I figured I'd warn you as to that as well. Dan From db30 at andrew.cmu.edu Mon Nov 10 12:26:18 2003 From: db30 at andrew.cmu.edu (db30 at andrew.cmu.edu) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:26:18 -0500 Subject: [ACT-R-users] matching score In-Reply-To: <8527211.1068466234@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> References: <6493697.1068464201@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> <8527211.1068466234@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> Message-ID: <9470848.1068467178@whatever.psy.cmu.edu> --On Monday, November 10, 2003 12:10 PM -0500 db30 at andrew.cmu.edu wrote: > To follow up on my own reply, is it in the stepper window > of the environment where you're seeing nil for the matching > score? I notice that direct retrievals aren't handled well > by the stepper in general and it's probably even more apparent > for successful direct retrievals because they don't even > generate an event. So, if that's where you were seeing it > I figured I'd warn you as to that as well. Ok, to follow up to my own message again. I had a bad test model when I was testing the stepper, which is why I saw no events for the direct retrievals. Successful direct retrievals do create events, and it is only the failures that show a bug. I'll patch that in the environment for the next release. Sorry for the extra messages, Dan From ELPWang at ntu.edu.sg Mon Nov 10 20:58:20 2003 From: ELPWang at ntu.edu.sg (Lipo WANG (Assoc Prof)) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 09:58:20 +0800 Subject: [ACT-R-users] Special Issue / New Book / NNS AdCom Election Message-ID: <5D138E82835F8143AC52E4899FAEFE38028EAFA4@exchange03.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg> Dear Colleague, You may be interested in the following: * A Special Issue on "Soft Computing for Bioinformatics" http://breezy7.eee.ntu.edu.sg:8000/~elpwang/CFP.pdf * A new book, "Soft Computing in Communications", http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,10735,5-102-22-3094204-0,00.html?changeHeader=true If you are a member of the IEEE Neural Network Society (NNS), I would appreciate your consideration as an AdCom (Administrative Committee) member. You can find more information on my positions at http://breezy7.eee.ntu.edu.sg:8000/~elpwang/NNS.pdf Thank you very much. Sincerely, Lipo WANG Candidate for NNS AdCom Member http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/elpwang From gratch at ict.usc.edu Tue Nov 18 17:52:54 2003 From: gratch at ict.usc.edu (Jonathan Gratch) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 14:52:54 -0800 Subject: [ACT-R-users] Position announcement Message-ID: <000301c3ae26$b3bdb350$72c1a8c0@ict.usc.edu> Seeking research scientist in Virtual Humans/Systems Integration at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies The University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) is involved in fundamental research on advancing the state of virtual reality training systems through a combination of advanced graphics, audio, artificial intelligence and Hollywood production techniques. ICT's Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRE) project is building towards this goal through the development of interactive virtual humans. These are artificially intelligent software systems that are embodied in human-like graphical bodies and that can interact with users in real-time through a mixture of natural language and non-verbal behavior. This project involves a tight integration between several research and commercial components including task reasoning, natural language processing, animation, graphics and audio. This is a high-profile research project and has received several awards for its innovative work. The MRE project is currently seeking a software engineering/systems integration researcher to address the integration and performance optimization needs of the project. The ideal candidate will have experience working with research teams on integrated real-time behavioral modeling systems, preferably with knowledge of Soar, Act-R or other cognitive modeling architectures, a working knowledge of distributed systems, and familiarity with natural language or mixed-initiative planning systems. The applicant can expect to spend half of their time on basic research and half on MRE system development. Duties include working with MRE researchers to refine system requirements, working with a small team of developers, contacting vendors and attending conferences to stay informed of developments in the area. The ideal applicant will have: * PhD in computer science * experience with cognitive modeling architectures (e.g., Soar, Act-R) * experience with virtual reality systems (e.g., military simulations, computer games) * familiarity with distributed system architectures * expertise with C++, UNIX/LINUX/IRIX and Windows operating systems Interested applicants should apply to job Requisition number XXXX at http://www.usc.edu/bus-affairs/ers/search.html. This is a full time, grant-funded position. Minimum Qualifications: Masters's degree with five years of experience; however, combined experience/education may substitute for minimum education. Relevant work experience to provide strong technical knowledge of programming and analysis and senior or lead experience. _____________________________________________ Jonathan Gratch | www.ict.usc.edu/~gratch Project Leader, Research Assistant Professor | Phone: (310) 448-0306 USC Institute for Creative Technologies | Fax: (310) 574-5725 13274 Fiji Way, Suite 600 | E-mail: gratch at ict.usc.edu Marina del Rey, CA 90292 | From ritter at ritter.ist.psu.edu Sat Nov 29 16:38:41 2003 From: ritter at ritter.ist.psu.edu (ritter at ritter.ist.psu.edu) Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 16:38:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: [ACT-R-users] CogModeling notes: ICCM04 & CogSci04 tutorials/2 Confs/2 job postings Message-ID: <200311292138.hATLcfJ02487@ritter.ist.psu.edu> [Please feel free to forward this as well.] This is based on the International Cognitive Modeling Conference mailing list, which I maintain. I've added you to it by hand. I send the messages out by hand using some Emacs functions. The first announcement is the one that is driving this email, the call for tutorials at ICCM 2004 is available. I don't anticipate much traffic though, until the next ICCM in Pittsburgh in 2004 has a schedule to go out (note that the paper call is already out). I email to it about 1-2 times/year a bunch of cognitive modeling and HCI related announcements, jobs, and links. I will continue to send this to you about twice a year unless you tell me to stop. I think these announcements are each of some quality. cheers, Frank 1. Call for tutorials, Sixth International Conference of Cognitive Modeling Proposals due 13 Feb, Tutorials 29 July 2004 http://acs.ist.psu.edu/iccm2004/tutorial-call.html [tutorials] http://simon.lrdc.pitt.edu/~iccm/ [conference] 2. Call for tutorials for The Cognitive Science Society Conference Proposals due 6 Feb, Tutorials 4 August 2004 http://acs.ist.psu.edu/cogsci2004/tutorial-call.html [tutorials] http://www.cogsci.northwestern.edu/cogsci2004/ [conference] 3. AISB'04 Symposia 29 March to 1 April 20 http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aisb 4. The 12th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics 12-15 September 2004 http://www.ecce12.org.uk/ 5. Call for Papers, 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6) papers due 31.12.2003, Workshop dates 14.04.2004 ? 16.04.2004 http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ppp/insttheopsy/gwal6 6. New Technical Group on Human Performance Modeling http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/cogworks/hpm-tg/ 7. School of IST, two positions open http://ist.psu.edu/jobposts/ 8. DePaul University: Position in Cognitive psychology ****************************************** 1. Call for tutorials, Sixth International Conference of Cognitive Modeling Call for tutorials: (http://acs.ist.psu.edu/iccm04/) Proposals due 13 February Tutorials on 29 July 2004 ICCM-2004 http://simon.lrdc.pitt.edu/~iccm To be held July 29 - August 1, 2004, in Pittsburgh, USA (jointly between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh). THEME ICCM brings researchers together who develop computational models that explain/predict cognitive data. The core theme of ICCM2004 is Integrating Computational Models: models that integrate diverse data; integration across modeling approaches; and integration of teaching and modeling. ICCM2004 seeks to grow the discipline of computational cognitive modeling. Towards this end, it will provide - a sophisticated modeling audience for cutting-edge researchers - critical information on the best computational modeling teaching resources for teachers of the next generation of modelers - a forum for integrating insights across alternative modeling approaches (including connectionism, symbolic modeling, dynamical systems, Bayesian modeling, and cognitive architectures) in both basic research and applied settings, across a wide variety of domains, ranging from low-level perception and attention to higher-level problem-solving and learning. - a venue for planning the future growth of the discipline INVITED SPEAKERS Kenneth Forbus (Northwestern University) Michael Mozer (University of Colorado at Boulder) SUBMISSION CATEGORIES --- DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: April 1st 2004 Papers and Posters Comparative Symposia Newell Prize for Best Student Paper The Best Applied Research Paper Award Doctoral Consortium CONFERENCE CHAIRS Marsha Lovett (lovett at cmu.edu) Christian Schunn (schunn at pitt.edu) Christian Lebiere (clebiere at maad.com) Paul Munro (pmunro at mail.sis.pitt.edu) Further information about the conference can be found at http://simon.lrdc.pitt.edu/~iccm or through email inquiries to iccm at pitt.edu. ****************************************** 2. Call for tutorials for The Cognitive Science Society Conference http://acs.ist.psu.edu/cogsci2004 The Tutorials program at Cognitive Science 2004 will be held on 4 August 2004. They will provide conference participants with the opportunity to gain new insights, knowledge, and skills from a broad range of areas in the field of cognitive science. Tutorial topics will be presented in a taught format and are likely to range from practical guidelines to academic issues and theory. This is the fourth year that tutorials in this format will be offered. Proposals are due on 6 February 2004. ****************************************** 3. AISB'04 Symposia "Motion, Emotion, and Cognition" will be the general theme of AISB2004, to encourage sessions on gesture communications, emotion analysis and simulations, and so on. Full list of symposia will be available through http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aisb 29 March to 1 April (inclusive) at the U. of Leeds. ****************************************** 4. The 12th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics http://www.ecce12.org.uk/ Living and Working with Technology University of York, UK 12th-15th September 2004 ECCE-12 seeks to encourage dialogue among the diverse disciplines that contribute to the conference theme of ?Living and Working with Technology?. We invite contributions that examine psychological, social, cultural and design aspects related to this theme. Submissions in the form of papers, posters, and panels addressing theoretical, empirical, methodological and design issues around the theme of ?living with technology? are welcome. ECCE-12 will be held immediately following the British HCI Conference in nearby Leeds. IMPORTANT DATES Deadlines for extended abstracts: January 30th 2004 Notification to authors: April 2nd 2004 Final Submission of papers in camera-ready form June 4th 2004 Posters submissions deadline February 6th 2004 Panel submissions deadline February 6th 2004 For an extended call and details of how to submit visit the ECCE-12 website: http://www.ecce12.org.uk/ ****************************************** 5. Call for Papers, 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6) http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ppp/insttheopsy/gwal6 14.04.2004 ? 16.04.2004 in Bamberg, Germany Artificial Life is a still growing interdisciplinary research field integrating a variety of different theoretical foundations, methodological positions, applications and disciplines. Main focus of this science is to abstract and to synthesize the essential features and dynamics of living systems in order to create artificial, life-like systems. On a regular basis and from 1995 on the German Workshop on Artificial Life is organized. Like previous workshops the 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life in 2004 is intended to provide the opportunity for scientists from a broad spectrum of research areas to get in touch with their colleagues from different disciplines, to learn from one another about questions of mutual interest and to have a forum for scientists who would like to get into contact with the Artificial Life community. This workshop is again open to an international audience and will be held in English. Contributions to the GWAL 2004 may result from research efforts from (and may be of interest for) biology, physics, information and computer science, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, robotics, socionics and much more. We expect to have talks, poster sessions, workgroups and computer demonstrations covering but not limited to topics like artificial chemistries, simulations of ecological and evolving systems, structure, dynamics and self-organization of individual living systems and societies, autonomous robots, communication in artificial systems, modelling of biological processes, learning and intelligence, complexity and its emergence, adaptive behaviour, self-organization and dynamics of information processing, application of principles of life to the design of artificial systems and technical solutions. For oral presentations and posters please submit 6- page abstracts, for workgroups/workshops/tutorials and computer demonstrations please submit 2-page papers. Contributions may describe theoretical foundations, empirical investigations and results, ongoing research, fresh concepts and ideas, applications or they may as well identify and discuss open questions. IMPORTANT DATES Dead-Line for submissions: 31.12.2003 Notification of acceptance: 01.02.2003 Camera-ready copies: 01.03.2004 Conference: 14.04.2004 ? 16.04.2004. The conference is organized by Harald Schaub, Frank Detje and Ulrike Br?ggemann. http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ppp/insttheopsy/gwal6 eMail: GWAL6 at gmx.de ****************************************** 6. New Technical Group on Human Performance Modeling Dick Pew and Wayne Gray are co-organizing a new Technical Group on Human Performance Modeling that will be based in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. The requirements to form a new TG include getting 200 people (min) to express their support. HFES sees TGs as a way of bringing new blood into the organization so they are quite happy if half of the supporters are NOT current members of HFES. If you are at all interested please go to: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/cogworks/hpm-tg/ There you will find: A. Information on "Why" a new TG in HFES on HPM is a good idea; an assessment of its likely impact on existing modeling conferences and groups; why situating the HPM-TG within HFES is a good idea; the philosophy of the HFES Conferences that makes them an ideal venue for presenting work-in-progress; etc. B. A draft of the "Proposal" that Dick and I will submit to HFES' Council of Technical Groups once we obtain > 200 expressions of interest C. A form that asks you for your name, email, affiliation, and a few questions. Once you click "submit" your info will be saved to a dbase. I think this is an exciting venture and an idea whose time has come. It is in part a result of the continuing inspiration I have drawn from Newell & Card (1985) over the years, as well as a direct result of the excitement that greeted the recent special issue that Mike Byrne and I did for the Human Factors journal. So -- please check out the website, read our materials, download them, and sign up as a supporter of this new group. Wayne Gray Byrne, M. D., & Gray, W. D. (2003). Returning human factors to an engineering discipline: Expanding the science base through a new generation of quantitative methods - Preface to the special section. Human Factors, 45(1), 1-4. Newell, A., & Card, S. K. (1985). The prospects for psychological science in human-computer interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 1(3), 209-242. ****************************************** 7. The School of Information Sciences and Technology (http://ist.psu.edu/) invites applications for two positions. One in networking and the other in behavioral science. Check the web site for updates or email me if you have questions. http://ist.psu.edu/jobposts/ ****************************************** 8. DePaul University: Position in Cognitive psychology Full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor of Psychology in Cognitive Psychology with quantitative and methodological strengths beginning September 2004. Excellent teaching skills and a commitment to undergraduate instruction are a prerequisite. Applicants should have expertise in quantitative methods and a strong research program with a specialization in human information processing. The successful candidate will be expected: (1) to teach courses in the psychology department's undergraduate core curriculum such as Introductory Psychology, Statistics, Research Methods, Experimental Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology, and to contribute to the university's Liberal Studies curriculum; (2) to contribute to graduate teaching and thesis supervision in cognitive psychology, statistics and methods; and (3) to make distinctive contributions to the scientific literature in cognitive psychology. Applicants are expected to demonstrate significant scholarly promise. A PhD in cognitive psychology or related field is required. DePaul's faculty value diversity and serve a diverse student body. Academic year, competitive salary. Applications received by November 10, 2003 will receive full consideration. Send letter of interest, vita, reprints, statement of research interests, statement of teaching philosophy and three letters of reference to: Chair, Cognitive Psychology Search Committee, Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60614-3504. Members of under-represented groups including women, ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply. DePaul University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. ********************** -30- (END)