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

[Bonnie John]

If you have a really simple "world" that you want to interact with, that 
can be expressed in a storyboard and only changes when ACT-R interacts 
with it (e.g., like a web site that only changes pages when a user 
clicks on a link), you can mock it up in CogTool. CogTool can then 
create an ACT-R device model for you. It's a little tricky getting this 
device model out and interacting with it, we use it to interact with web 
pages all the time. (just links though, no fancy dynamic web pages)
www.cogtool.org

If you want to know more, let me know.
Bonnie


On 12/1/10 2:58 PM, 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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