[ACT-R-users] Buffer Clearings and Declarative Memory

[db30 at andrew.cmu.edu]

--On Monday, May 30, 2011 3:17 PM +0200 Felix Steffenhagen 
<felix.steffenhagen at gmx.de> wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> I'm a little confused about which buffer clearing trigger adding new
> chunks to declarative memory. In the ACT-R Tutorial Unit 2 Secion 2.6
> (Learning new Chunks) it says:
> " ... whenever a chunk is cleared from a buffer it becomes part of the
> model's declarative memory."
>
> Does this principle only works for perceptual (input) buffers?
>
> In my ACT-R model (see attachment) I tried to retrieve a press-key chunk
> after pressing a key twice. When the model presses the key the second
> time, the manual buffer should be cleared and, if the principle
> works for this buffer, I should be able to retrieve this chunk.
>
> After running the model, there is no chunk in the DM except the ones
> that I defined. So, does this principle not work for the output buffers
> like the manual buffer?
>


The statement is true for every buffer.  However, not every module
will respond to a request by putting a chunk into its buffer.  In
the model you have for instance, the motor module does not create
a chunk in response to the press-key request.  Thus there is nothing
to be added to declarative memory when the manual buffer is cleared.

Hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions,
Dan