From ritter at Psychology.Nottingham.AC.UK Tue May 4 11:38:27 1999 From: ritter at Psychology.Nottingham.AC.UK (ritter at Psychology.Nottingham.AC.UK) Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 16:38:27 +0100 (BST) Subject: Soar and ACT-R tutorials and teaching workshop at CogSci Conf Message-ID: I thought I should pass on to you that there will be a tutorial series including Act-R and Soar at the Cognitive Science conference this summer. The web site will be up shortly; we estimate that the price will be about US$ 50 for the tutorials. There will also be a workshop on teaching cognitive science that looks interesting. If have people who have been waiting to take either of these tutorials, now's their chance. Cheers, Frank The Twenty First Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society will take place on August 19-21, 1999 at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. The day before the conference, there will be an open workshop on teaching cognitive science and a tutorial programme. This year there are four tutorials on cognitive architectures, including Soar, ACT-R, Cogent, and PDP++. These tutorials are generally designed to introduce architectures to potential users. These tutorials do not teach the architectures completely, but provide enough background to understand models written in them and usually provide enough information for modellers to judge if the architecture is right for their problem. More information on the conference is available at . From ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk Sat May 8 14:13:27 1999 From: ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk (ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk) Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 19:13:27 +0100 (BST) Subject: report on cog modelling conference 98 Message-ID: I was waiting to post this until it came out, and it just came out this week after a series of misadventures. I include it mostly because of the Lessons Learned section. Cheers, Frank **************************************************************** [Young, R. M., & Ritter, F. E. (1999). Report on the Second European Conference on Cognitive Modelling. AI and Simulation of Behaviour Quarterly, 101, 10-11.] Report on the Second European Conference on Cognitive Modelling Richard Young Frank E. Ritter Psychology Psychology U. of Hertfordshire University of Nottingham Hatfield AL10 9AB Nottingham NG7 2RD R.M.Young at herts.ac.uk Frank.Ritter at nottingham.ac.uk The Second European Conference on Cognitive Modelling (ECCM-98) was held in Nightingale Hall at the University of Nottingham from 1 to 4 April 1998. As well as presented papers, the conference included tutorials (on Act-R, Soar, and Cogent), invited addresses, symposia, posters, and demonstrations of models and modelling software. A complete listing and information on obtaining the proceedings is available through the conference web pages at "http://www. psychology. nottingham.ac.uk/staff/ritter/eccm98". The call for papers encouraged submissions that reported both a running (i.e. implemented) computer model and some empirical data against which the model was compared. We were pleased with the results. Most of the submission included both those components, the only real exceptions being papers where such a criterion was not appropriate, such as those dealing with tools, architectures, or methodology. The quantity and the quality were high enough that we were able to be selective. Within the constraints of preparing for a conference-where a large number of papers have to be assessed in a short interval of time, and where decisions about acceptance or rejection have to be made on the basis of a paper as it stands-we were able to provide some serious refereeing. Of course, the review process could not be as thorough as it is for journal publication, but each paper was read and commented on by at least two members of the programme committee and a programme co-chair. We tried hard to make the feedback given to authors clear and informative, especially in cases where changes were suggested or where reasons for rejecting a paper (or accepting it as a poster) were offered. Of the 40 papers submitted, we accepted 20, and invited a further 10 to be presented as posters (6 of which took up the invitation). We also accepted 5 of the 6 poster contributions. Our main criterion for posters was that they should be of relevance to the cognitive modelling research community, but possibly reporting work that was too preliminary to be presented as a main paper, or possibly focused on a model without as yet including the comparison to data. The papers that were published were visibly improved through the authors' attention to the reviews and their own further revisions. The proceedings were published and further information is available from the web site. As well as having representation from a wide range of areas of cognitive modelling, the conference was a truly international event, contributions to the programme came from 14 different countries: the UK (11), USA (9), France (8), Germany (7), Italy (3), Belgium (2), Finland (2), The Netherlands (2), Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Japan, Sweden, and Switzerland (1 each). The proceeding's author index lists no fewer than 80 authors who contributed to the conference. The conference also had international sponsorship. In addition to our departments, support was provided by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the European Research Office of the US Army and the US Air Force European Office of Aerospace Research and Development. Lessons learned The concentration of models and data was high enough that several new generalisations emerged. Models are starting to interact with complex, interactive task simulations. This leads to and supports more complex behaviours, sometimes caused by multiple interacting mechanisms in the model. Most models were created within the context of existing architectures, and that the standard for proposing new architectures is increasing. The papers indicated that architectures are being used in new ways, for example, modifying the architecture to simulate fatigue or cognitive development. How many times to run a model that have includes a stochastic component has been an often asked question in cognitive modelling. Most papers reported running the model once per subject modelled. Having a variety of examples of this lets one see that the most robust approach is to run the model until a clear measure of the expected behaviour and range is available. This gets the most out of the model, for it provides the clearest comparison and is most likely to indicate where the model can be improved. Future of the conference It is appropriate to end this summary with some thoughts about the nature of the ECCMs and how they relate to other meetings. Many of us tend to think of cognitive modelling as a research activity dominated by the USA. Yet even in the USA, the publication of descriptions of running computer models and their detailed comparison with empirical data is comparatively rare, and there seem to be no meetings attempting what ECCM is trying to do. The closest that comes to mind is the annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Yet the feel of that meeting is entirely different to ECCM, in part because it is indeed a meeting of a particular scientific society (which ECCM is not), and in part because Cognitive Science (as viewed by the Society) is a broad field, of which cognitive modelling is seen as just a small part. (Although there are many model+data papers there, the ratio is not as high and there are many other types of papers as well.) What makes ECCM distinctive is the point we stressed above, namely our emphasis on the presentation of both an implemented model and its comparison against empirical data, and on keeping a reasonable balance between the two. The conference built on the success of the first meeting in the series, which had been held in Berlin in November 1996. Its proceedings were initially published as a technical report of the Berlin University of Technology, but a subset of the papers have been revised and extended and are now available as a reasonably priced book (U. Schmid, J. Krems, & F. Wysotzki (Eds.), Mind modeling -A cognitive science approach to reasoning, learning and discovery. Lengerich (Germany): Pabst Scientific Publishing, ISBN 3-933151-25-2, $25/40DM). There are some uncertainties about future meetings, and especially about our relationship to the ongoing series of European Conferences on Cognitive Science (ECCS: St Malo, 1995; Manchester, 1997; Sienna, 1999). These matters were discussed at a special session during the conference. Nothing was clearly decided about the location and timing of any third ECCM, although the attendees expressed their interest in attending another ECCM and several tentative offers of hosting the next meeting were put forward. We certainly hope that something recognisably similar to the first two ECCMs continues, though perhaps still more international in flavour. To judge from the papers at this conference, cognitive modelling in Europe is in a comparatively healthy state. From Wolfgang.Schoppek at uni-bayreuth.de Mon May 10 02:58:39 1999 From: Wolfgang.Schoppek at uni-bayreuth.de (Wolfgang Schoppek) Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 08:58:39 +0200 Subject: Decay Productions Message-ID: Troy, the two productions BEGIN-MATCH and LOOK-AT-REFERENT have the chunk of type image at different functional positions. So the first question is how you get object1 on the goal-stack again. Since the model fails to retrieve that chunk, it cannot push it either. Pushing it by some external code (goal-focus object1) does not affect the baselevel at all. Your model has simply forgotten that information. Probably you have to write some productions that encode object1 from the environment once more. -- Wolfgang -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Wolfgang Schoppek <<< Tel.: +49 921 555003 <<< Lehrstuhl fuer Psychologie, Universitaet Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/psychologie/wolfgang.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk Wed May 12 08:12:08 1999 From: ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk (ritter at psychology.nottingham.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 13:12:08 +0100 (BST) Subject: Jones graduates with ACT-R thesis Message-ID: It is my pleasure to announce that Gary Jones passed his PhD viva (PhD defence) today on the topic "Testing mechanisms of development within a computational framework". Kim Plunkett was his external examiner. The work was taking an Act-R model that matched adult behaviour and modifying it in variously theoretically suggested ways and comparing the results with data from 7 year olds. Cheers, Frank From niels at tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl Wed May 12 09:35:31 1999 From: niels at tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl (Niels Taatgen) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:35:31 +0200 Subject: Symposium on cognitive modeling Message-ID: Symposium cognitive modeling On the friday the 25th of june, the department of cognitive science and engineering, in collaboration with the Centre for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, will organize a symposium on cognitive modeling. This symposium will focus on the ACT-R cognitive architecture, developed by John Anderson and his group at Carnegie Mellon University. Speakers John Anderson (Carnegie Mellon University): ACT-R and learning Richard Young (University of Hertfordshire): Title will be announced later Dieter Wallach (University of Basel): A critical evaluation of evidence against ACT-R's declarative-procedural distinction Frank Ritter (University of Notthingham): Frontiers of Cognitive Models: Emotions!! Jans Aasman (Technical University of Delft): Title will be announced later Niels Taatgen (University of Groningen): Learning without limits Programme The exact program will be announced shortly. The symposium will probably start between 9.30 and 10.00, and will end between 17.00 and 18.00. Participating The symposium can be attended free of charge. However, due to limitations in the size of the room, attendance is restricted to 50 persons. So if you plan to attend, send a message to Niels Taatgen, either by email (niels at tcw3.ppsw.rug.nl) or regular mail: Niels Taatgen Cognitive Science and Engineering University of Groningen Grote Kruisstraat 2/1 9712 TS Groningen Netherlands tel. 050-3636435 / +31 50 3636435 Web page The following web page will contain information about the symposium, and will be updated regularly: http://tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl/~niels/symposium.html -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Niels Taatgen Technische Cognitiewetenschap/Cognitive science & engineering Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, Netherlands 050-3636435 / +31503636435 niels at tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl http://tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl/~niels ------------------------------------------------------------- From db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu Mon May 17 13:41:25 1999 From: db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel J Bothell) Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 13:41:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ACT-R application for Windows Message-ID: There is a new ACT-R application available from our web page (under the Education link). It is a stand alone application that runs ACT-R and the ACT-R Scripting Extensions under Windows, without the need to load ACT-R into a LISP application. The readme file is included below. NOTE: If you have an older version of this application it is strongly recommended that you delete it, and get the new version. =================== Readme.txt ============================= This is a stand alone version of plain ACT-R for Windows. This is not the ACT-R Environment, just ACT-R and the ACT-R scripting extensions running in a listener without the need for ACL. It will run the tutorial projects, but does not provide any of the inspection windows described in the tutorial. However, all of the functionality of those windows is available from the command line. The manual is available from our web page: http://act.psy.cmu.edu . It was built with ACL 5.0 Runtime so it does not include the following ACL 5.0 features (taken from the ACL Runtime documentation): cross referencer profiler stepper disassembler excl:dumplisp compiler (compile and compile-file) :help, :history, and redo top-level commands This was basically made as a test prior to production of the stand alone version of the environment, and made avaiable because some people may find it useful. After the setup program runs there will be an Act-r menu in the programs group of the start menu (or in the menu you specified if you did not accept the default), and a shortcut placed on the desktop. Either of these can be used to run plain ACT-R. You can also run the "plain ACT-R.exe" program directly. To uninstall plain ACT-R use Add/Remove Programs in the Windows control panel. If you have been using a previous version that did not have a setup program to run you should delete it, and run this one. It turns out that a couple of the .dll's Allegro needs may already be installed in the system folder on your machine, and having copies in the folder where the file is run can cause problems (see below). The setup program takes care of that. If you have any questions or problems with this program send mail to Dan Bothell (db30 at andrew.cmu.edu). If you would like to be informed of updates to this and other ACT-R programs you should subscribe to the ACT-R mailing list. The directions are available on our web page as well as below. There is also an archive of the mailing list available on our web page, if you would like to see the past discussions. ============================================== >From our web page (http://act.psy.cmu.edu the ACT-R Mailing List link): ACT-R Users Mailing List The act-r-users mailing list was created to disseminate information among users of the ACT-R production system. Users can ask questions, exchange tips, discuss issues and share all relevant information by sending mail to: act-r-users+ at andrew.cmu.edu Messages to that address are automatically forwarded to all subscribers. To subscribe to the list, report bugs, or any other purpose which requires the direct involvement of the maintainer and is not of direct interest to all users, send mail to: act-r-users-request+ at andrew.cmu.edu =============================================== >From the Franz FAQ (http://www.franz.com under the support link): The directory created by generate-application also contains the system DLLs msvcrt.dll and mfc42.dll, user32.dll (if you use CLIM), and possibly others. These files, if present in both the Windows 'system' directory and the application directory can cause subtle failures. ... If mfc42.dll is duplicated, when the user closes the application, the application will appear to exit but then an error will be signaled (on Windows NT) and perhaps a machine crash on Windows 95/98. From db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu Mon May 17 13:45:34 1999 From: db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel J Bothell) Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 13:45:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ACT-R application for Windows Message-ID: There is currently a problem with one of our web servers, so you may not be able to connect to our main page. If you want to get the application, you can download it directly from: http://bk1.psy.cmu.edu/models/act-r.exe From db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu Mon May 17 14:47:16 1999 From: db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel J Bothell) Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 14:47:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ACT-R application for Windows Message-ID: Ok, our server problem has been corrected. You can get the application using either the direct link, or from the education link on our main page (http://act.psy.cmu.edu). From gray at gmu.edu Sat May 22 13:51:43 1999 From: gray at gmu.edu (Wayne Gray) Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 13:51:43 -0400 Subject: ACT-R WORKSHOP -- Early Registration Deadline Message-ID: KEY DATES June 15th EARLY REGISTRATION DUE Papers: Two-page abstract due Posters, Demos, & Tutorial attendees -- notice of "intent" due July 1st Posters & Demos: Abstract due August 1st Late registration due Papers, Posters, & Demos: Camera-ready copy due http://hfac.gmu.edu/~actr99 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/_/ SIXTH ACT-R WORKSHOP _/_/ _/_/ http://hfac.gmu.edu/~actr99 _/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Wayne D. Gray HUMAN FACTORS & APPLIED COGNITIVE PROGRAM SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS (FedX et al) VOICE: +1 (703) 993-1357 George Mason University FAX: +1 (703) 993-1330 ARCH Lab/HFAC Program ********************* MSN 3f5 * Work is infinite, * Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 * time is finite, * http://hfac.gmu.edu * plan accordingly. * _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ From db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu Thu May 27 13:10:04 1999 From: db30+ at andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel J Bothell) Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 13:10:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: New version of ACT-R Environment for Windows Message-ID: There is a new version of the ACT-R Environment for Windows available from our web site: http://act.psy.cmu.edu/ACT/ftp/education/index.html . The largest change from the previous versions is the addition of the tutor mode to the instantiation viewer and the Tutor models (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 2.1), which were previously only available in the Macintosh version. There are also some minor bug fixes, and there is now an installation utility that sets up a shortcut to start ACL with the environment automatically. This version of the environment will also work with the free version of ACL 5.0. However, since the free version of ACL does not include the ability to compile files, ACT-R will run very slowly, and the heap limit in the free version will restrict the size of models and the number of times that they can be run. If you have any questions, comments, or problems with the environment, please let me know. Dan