[ACT-R-users] Language "Module" in ACT-R

[Ball, Jerry T Civ USAF AFMC 711 HPW/RHAC]

Fellow ACT-R modelers,

 

A 2009 Cog Sci Conference paper referred to the language comprehension
model we are developing in ACT-R as a language "module". This is not a
view I have adopted, preferring to view our model as (primarily) using
ACT-R general mechanisms. However, it is true that the model has a
collection of specialized buffers to store the partial products of
language comprehension. These buffers are motivated on functional
grounds - they are needed to process language and generate
representations. We do not propose a mapping to brain regions. We
introduced the specialized buffers because we have not found a way of
using ACT-R's DM retrieval mechanism and the single retrieval buffer
which holds a single chunk, to support retention of the partial products
that are needed for (large-scale) language comprehension. 

 

It may be that the existence of these specialized buffers, combined with
the productions which reference them can be viewed as constituting a
module in ACT-R.   However, unlike other modules, this module contains
lots of production-based grammatical knowledge that must be learned
(although we have engineered them in). If, in addition, it is possible
to learn how to buffer declarative knowledge via creation of specialized
buffers, then there may be a cognitive mechanism for learning new
"modules". That is, the brain can be specialized to process specific
kinds of information that it is not hardwired to process. Under this
view, a language "module" is not innate, but it can be learned. Of
course, our model does not actually learn how to buffer specialized
linguistic information (or learn productions for that matter), we have
engineered in the new buffers (and productions). But if ACT-R had such a
mechanism, then it might be possible for an ACT-R model to learn to be a
"module".

 

Jerry

 

Jerry T. Ball, PhD

Senior Research Psychologist

Human Effectiveness Directorate

711th Human Performance Wing

Air Force Research Laboratory

6030 S. Kent Street, Mesa, AZ 85212

PH: 480-988-6561 ext 678; DSN 474-6678

Jerry.Ball at mesa.afmc.af.mil

 

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