We studied collaborative skill acquisition in a dynamic setting with the game Co-op Space Fortress. While gaining expertise, the majority of subjects became increasingly consistent in the role they adopted without being able to communicate. Moreover, they acted in anticipation of the future task state. We constructed a collaborative skill…

Learning to solve a class of problems can be characterized as a search through a space of hypotheses about the rules for solving these problems. A series of four experiments studied how different learning conditions affected the search among hypotheses about the solution rule for a simple computational problem. Experiment 1 showed that a problem…

Part- and whole-task conditions were created by manipulating the presence of certain components of the Space Fortress video game. A cognitive model was created for two-part games that could be combined into a model that performed the whole game. The model generated predictions both for behavioral patterns and activation patterns in various brain…

The basal ganglia play a central role in cognition and are involved in such general functions as action selection and reinforcement learning. Here, we present a model exploring the hypothesis that the basal ganglia implement a conditional information-routing system. The system directs the transmission of cortical signals between pairs of regions…

In two experiments, we studied how people's strategy choices emerge through an initial and then a more considered evaluation of available strategies. The experiments employed a computer-based paradigm where participants solved multiplication problems using mental and calculator solutions. In addition to recording responses and solution times, we…

This article investigates the potential of fMRI to test assumptions about different components in models of complex cognitive tasks. If the components of a model can be associated with specific brain regions, one can make predictions for the temporal course of the BOLD response in these regions. An event-locked procedure is described for dealing…

This article describes the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) cognitive architecture (Anderson et al., 2004; Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) and its detailed application to the learning of algebraic symbol manipulation. The theory is applied to modeling the data from a study by Qin, Anderson, Silk, Stenger, & Carter (2004) in which children…

Two experiments explored how memory for new information is affected by awareness of parallels to pre-experimental knowledge. Results suggest that the benefit of prior knowledge derives from the more elaborate encodings that analogy promotes. (Author/AM)

ACT-R is a theory of cognition that is capable of learning the relative usefulness of alternative rules. A model using this implicit procedural learning mechanism is described that explains results from a concept formation task created by McDonald and MacWhinney (1991), a role assignment created by Blackwell (1995), and a new role assignment…

This report describes several of the design decisions underlying ACT, a production system model of human cognition. ACT can be considered a high level computer programming language as well as a theory of the cognitive mechanisms underlying human information processing. ACT design decisions were based on both psychological and artificial…

This book presents a description of a new theory of memory which departs from existing concepts. It integrates and explains in detail the recent research findings in sentence memory, language comprehension, search on long term memory, verbal learning, and forgetting and imagery. It also reports new experiments which clarify these issues. A major…

The author analyzes some recent developments in the debate over the status of mental imagery. He attempts to specify what a propositional theory is, and considers arguments for and against the imagery position, i.e., whether visual imagery is encoded in terms of properties that are quite spatial and modality specific. (Author/RK)

Related to the earlier ACT production system theory, this book's basic goal is to present evidence for the psychological reality of a production system model of mind. Distinguished from the original theory in three ways, this volume uses previous rational analyses to improve upon that theory and extend its scope. It also relates the theory to new…