[ACT-R-users] ACT-R: Prior knowledge measurement

[Markus Eklund]

Hi,

I am a graduate student at San Diego State University (Educational
Technology department) where I am conducting a Master's Thesis on
Prior knowledge as it relates to the concept of Transactional
Distance; see end of e-mail for the concept description.

I would like to use the Activation Equation (and several others) in my
study but have some questions:

1.  Given that I do not neccessarily know the background of my
students (e.g. I can't easily estimate the evolution of knowledge and
performance through presentations), how can I measure Bi?  Is there
anyone out there who has already developed/validated instruments (I am
only interested in the cognitive module) for this?

2. When looking at individual differences, I have read studies in
which differences in skill acquisition are influenced by architectural
factors.  But is anyone researching/modeling the how initial
differences in declarative and procedural memory (including problem
solving strategies) influence skill acquisition?

3. Does the 'Integrated Theory of the Mind' paper list all the
fundamental equations in ACT-R?

Thanks for the assistance,

Markus Eklund


PS: 

Transactional Distance: Is a function of the variance in dialogue and
structure as they related to each other; therefore, 'distance' in
education is not deteremined by geographic proximity (as anyone in a
large lecture hall receiving a lecture knows), but by the level and
rate of dialogue and structure.

One of my hypothesis' is that 'there is an inverse relationship
(possibly also an exponential relationship depending on how the dialog
is structured) between the level of prior knowledge and transactional
distance.

For more details on Transactional Distance, see Saba, F. & Shearer, R.
1994. Verifying Key Theoretical Concepts in a Dynamic Model of
Distance Education.  American Journal of Distance Education.