[ACT-R-users] ACT-R & E-Prime

[Hongbin Wang]

We have been developing a package in E-Prime which allows E-Prime to communicate (input/output) in real-time to outside systems (eg, eye-tracker, eeg) via sockets. Conceptually it is possible to use the similar mechanism to include ACT-R in the loop via socket/device.

Hongbin


On Dec 1, 2010, at 1:58 PM, <db30 at andrew.cmu.edu> <db30 at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> 
> 
> --On Wednesday, December 01, 2010 4:59 PM +0000 j.a.grange at psy.keele.ac.uk wrote:
> 
>> Dear community,
>> 
>> Is there any way to get ACT-R models to interact with windows other than
>> those generated by a LISP-coded experiment? For example, is there any way
>> to program an experiment in other software (i.e. E-Prime)and have the
>> model interact with this?
>> 
> 
> Yes, it is possible to have a model interact with something other than the
> experiment tools provided.  However, there are no alternative interfaces
> built into the ACT-R software so one would have to create such an interface
> for the model as needed.
> 
> At a low level, the perceptual and motor modules of ACT-R interact with
> the world through what is called a device.  The device is responsible for
> providing the visual percepts to the model and handling the motor and speech
> output which the model generates.  Thus to create an interface to a
> different environment requires creating a device for the model.  There is a
> set of slides titled "extending-actr" in the docs directory of the ACT-R 6.0
> distribution which describes what is necessary to create a new device, and
> there are examples which go along with those slides found in the examples
> directory of the distribution.
> 
> If that alternate world is also written in Lisp (as is the case for the
> example devices) then writing the device is essentially all that's
> necessary.  However, if the external environment is outside of Lisp then
> there are other software issues involved which are beyond the scope of the
> ACT-R software.  In particular, how to interface the device for the model to
> that external software depends on what sort of interface that external
> software provides and whether or not the Lisp being used has the necessary
> tools for connecting to and working with such an interface.  Those sorts of
> things are going to require consulting other appropriate sources.
> 
> Although there aren't any alternate interfaces included with the ACT-R
> software, I have seen announcements by people with claims about general
> interfaces for ACT-R over the years.  Here are a few which I remember [I
> apologize to anyone who may have written something which I missed]:
> 
> SegMan by Rob St. Amant <http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/stamantRRR05.pdf>
> ACT-CV by Marc Halbrügge <http://act-cv.sourceforge.net/>
> An ACT-R Java interface by Philippe Büttner 
> <http://www.zmms.tu-berlin.de/kogmod/tools/hello-java.html>
> 
> I have not tried any of them, so I can't say anything about their usefulness
> or applicability to your current needs.
> 
> 
> I hope that information helps, and if you have any more questions about
> ACT-R feel free to ask.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> 
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