how can ACT-R models age?
Wayne Gray
gray at gmu.edu
Fri Jan 5 09:42:37 EST 2001
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Interesting comments.
Given the "filling up" (Altmann) versus "slowing down" (AKA "dubya")
dichotomy, it sounds to me as if we need to hear from someone who has
some data on what actually does happen with age. This is an area that
I do NOT follow closely. From a distance it appears that not too many
cognitive scientists are actually involved in the cognition of aging.
(The area seems to be largely dominated by the "individual
difference" crowd, where ID is determined not by careful analysis of
individual performance, but by administering standardized test of
dubious construct validity to large numbers of people and then
statistically torturing the data until some significant correlation
is found.)
One of the nicest treatments of the interactions of the actr mind is
the one provided by Marsha, Lynne, and Christian in their excellent
chapter in the Mikaye & Shah volume:
Lovett, M. C., Reder, L. M., & Lebiere, C. (1999). Modeling working
memory in a unified architecture: An ACT-R perspective. In A. Miyake
& P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active
maintenance & executive control (pp. 135-182). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
I believe we could get the effect of decreasing W AND increasing
number of DMEs from adding more slots to the goal chunk. That would
account for retrieval difficulties and, I think, learning
difficulties. I also believe that the various interactions that
LRL'99 discuss would be sensitive to an increasing number of DMEs
clogging up the system.
On the other hand I find the notion that there is a set of general
system parameters that change with age to have intuitive appeal. On
the physicial level it certainly appears that children are more
physically active than twenty-somethings who are in turn more
physically active than fifty-somethings who are in turn more
physically active than 80-somethings. But, on the third hand, I like
to keep in mind the statement that Dan Dennett likes to repeat, "For
every complex problem, there is a simple answer, and it is wrong."
Cheers,
Wayne
--
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Wayne D. Gray, Program Director
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. *
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
--============_-1233415675==_ma============
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: how can ACT-R models age?</title></head><body>
<div>Interesting comments.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Given the "filling up" (Altmann) versus "slowing
down" (AKA "dubya") dichotomy, it sounds to me as if we
need to hear from someone who has some data on what actually does
happen with age. This is an area that I do NOT follow closely. From a
distance it appears that not too many cognitive scientists are
actually involved in the cognition of aging. (The area seems to be
largely dominated by the "individual difference" crowd,
where ID is determined not by careful analysis of individual
performance, but by administering standardized test of dubious
construct validity to large numbers of people and then statistically
torturing the data until some significant correlation is found.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>One of the nicest treatments of the interactions of the actr mind
is the one provided by Marsha, Lynne, and Christian in their excellent
chapter in the Mikaye & Shah volume:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000">Lovett, M. C.,
Reder, L. M., & Lebiere, C. (1999). Modeling working memory in a
unified architecture: An ACT-R perspective. In A. Miyake & P. Shah
(Eds.),<i> Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance
& executive control</i> (pp. 135-182). New York: Cambridge
University Press.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I believe we could get the effect of decreasing W AND increasing
number of DMEs from adding more slots to the goal chunk. That would
account for retrieval difficulties and, I think, learning
difficulties. I also believe that the various interactions that LRL'99
discuss would be sensitive to an increasing number of DMEs clogging up
the system.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>On the other hand I find the notion that there is a set of
general system parameters that change with age to have intuitive
appeal. On the physicial level it certainly appears that children are
more physically active than twenty-somethings who are in turn more
physically active than fifty-somethings who are in turn more
physically active than 80-somethings. But, on the third hand, I like
to keep in mind the statement that Dan Dennett likes to repeat,
"For every complex problem, there is a simple answer, and it is
wrong."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Wayne</div>
<div>-- <br>
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_<span
></span>/_/_/<br>
Wayne D. Gray, Program Director<br>
HUMAN FACTORS & APPLIED COGNITIVE PROGRAM<br>
<br>
SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS (FedX et al) VOICE: +1
(703) 993-1357<br>
George Mason
University <span
></span> FAX: +1 (703) 993-1330<br>
ARCH Lab/HFAC
Program <span
></span
> <span
></span> *********************<br>
MSN
3f5 <span
></span
> <span
></span
> <span
></span
>
* Work is infinite, * <br>
Fairfax, VA
22030-4444 <span
></span>
* time is finite,
*<br>
http://hfac.gmu.edu <span
></span
> <span
></span>
* plan accordingly. *<br>
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_<span
></span>/_/_/</div>
</body>
</html>
--============_-1233415675==_ma============--
More information about the ACT-R-users
mailing list