Cognitive Architectures and Human-Computer Interaction

Sunday, May 7

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together three overlapping groups of HCI researchers: those who have used a major cognitive architecture for user modeling, those who have used more than one such architecture, and those who have developed cognitive models using either generic or handcrafted software.

The use of cognitive architectures is beginning to have an interesting, but little noted, effect on the types of modeling applied to HCI issues. In the past, the software used to construct models was either very generic (e.g., OPS5) or handcrafted by the individual modeler. Recently this situation has changed. Generic connectionist architectures and, more recently, symbol manipulation architectures (Soar and ACT-R) have entered the public domain. These systems are centrally supported, but their use has spread beyond their developers. What is gained and what is lost by this trend?

Presentations, exercises, and discussions focus on appropriate use of cognitive architectures for the modeling, analysis, and solution of HCI problems. Specific topics include (a) matching architectures to kinds of analyses and problems, (b) the methodology appropriate to the develop-ment and use of models based on a cognitive architecture, (c) the theoretical basis for cognitive user models, and (d) comparison of cognitive modeling and other approaches for solving HCI problems.

This one-day workshop is limited to 15 participants.

Contact:

Susan S. Kirschenbaum
Code 2214 Building 1171/1
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division
Newport, RI 02841-5047 USA
E-mail: kirsch@npt.nuwc.navy.mil
Tel: +1 401 841 3354
Fax: +1 401 841 4749