Cognitive Systems 2

Course Overview

A Introduction
1. 30 Oct 06: Introduction to cognitive modeling, organizational stuff (T. Barkowsky) / Behavioral and neuropsychological methods (H. Schultheis) / Homework: Exercise 1.
2. 06 Nov 06: Introduction to production systems (presentation by Christian Kohlhagen & Daniel Rippel) / Presentation and discussion of exercise 1 / Homework: install Soar and get it running (work through Tutorial part I).

B Soar
3. 13 Nov 06: Introduction to Soar (presentation by Björn Hinze, Ivaylo Mitakov, & Dean Malchev) / Practical introduction to Soar: Tutorial part II (presentation by Dimitri Tichanow) / Exercise 2.
4. 20 Nov 06: Practical introduction to Soar: Tutorial part III (presentation by Mark Setterich & Jasper van de Ven) / A Soar application: Tutorial part VI (presentation by Tobias Benscheidt) / student team work.
5. 27 Nov 06: Presentation and discussion of solutions of exercise 2

C ACT-R
6. 04 Dec 06: Introduction to ACT-R (presentation by T. Barkowsky) / Practical introduction to ACT-R: Tutorial part I and part II (presentation by Aizhen Liu) / Tutorial part III and part IV (old) (no presentation - please read yourself)/ Homework: install ACT-R and get it running, Exercise 3.
7. 11 Dec 06: Practical introduction to ACT-R: Tutorial part IV and part V (presentation by Stanislava Budvytyte & Adomos Sutkevicius) / An ACT-R application (presentation by Oliver Neugebauer & Timo Lotze) / student team work
8. 18 Dec 06: Spatial representations in ACT-R (presentation by Paul Weder, Bernhard Scholz, & Maik Windhorst) / Presentations and discussion of solutions of exercise 3

[Xmas holidays]

D Cogent, connectionist models, and model validation
9. 08 Jan 07: Introduction to COGENT (presentation by Torben Gerkensmeyer & Niclas Schult) / Practical example in COGENT (presentation by Ying Zhong; missionaries & cannibals) / Homework: install COGENT and get it running, Exercise 4.
10. 15 Jan 07: Introduction to connectionist models (presentation by Hannes Janetzek, Stefan Markus Fulfs, & Till von Wenzlawowicz) / A connectionist cognitive architecture (presentation by Dustin Wagner & Lutz Moeckel)
11. 22 Jan 07: The role of neural networks in cognitive science (presentation by Christian Templin & Gregor Poloczek) / Presentation and discussion of solutions of exercise 4
12. 29 Jan 07: Higher level languages for cognitive modeling (presentation by Torsten Humann & Frank Supper) / Methods for validating cognitive models (student team work)

E Summary
13. 05 Feb 07: Presentation and discussion of methods for validating cognitive models / Summary of the course.

Reading / Presentation Material, Tutorials, and Exercises

1 Soar
The Soar home page
A gentle introduction to Soar

Attention! The following tutorials refer to SOAR v8.5.x. If you install the latest SOAR version on your computer, you will find updated tutorials within the distribution.
The Soar tutorial part 1
The Soar tutorial part 2
The Soar tutorial part 3
The Soar tutorial part 4
The Soar tutorial part 5
The Soar tutorial part 6

2 ACT-R
The ACT-R home page
(There are several options for installing the ACT-R system on your computer given on the ACT-R software site. Please install ACT-R 6!)
Introduction: An integrated theory of the mind

3 COGENT
The COGENT home page
(there are installable version of COGENT for diverse platforms)
Introduction to the COGENT Modeling Environment

Assignments / Credits

To receive credit for this course you are expected to read the texts provided, to work on the tutorials, and to give a presentation (introduction, demonstration, or application of a cognitive architecture). Furthermore, there are four exercises you have to work on, including a written documentation of your solution (see return dates below) and a presentation in the course. In the four exercises you have to reach an average grade of at least 60%. The exercises will be done in groups of 3-5 students. At the end of the winter term we will have a technical discussion of 20-30 minutes with every group to check whether the mark achieved in each working group is applicable to all candidates of the group and to decide for individual marks.

In this course you will collaboratively work on the exercises. However, collaboration is to be sharply distinguished from cheating. All forms of cheating (including plagiarism) are strictly forbidden. If you are caught cheating, this may result in an automatic failure in the course.

Return dates for the exercises:
No. 1: 05 Nov 06; No. 2: 24 Nov 06; No. 3: 15 Dec 06; No. 4: 19 Jan 07 (Please send your solutions to cosy-exercises@informatik.uni-bremen.de)

Exam

The technical discussions ("Fachgespräche") as well as the oral exams ("Modulprüfungen") in Cognitive Systems 2 are scheduled for Monday, 19 Feb 07 (and Friday, 13 Apr 07, for repeaters); please note that both dates are still subject to change. To take an oral exam or to participate in a technical discussion, please register by 28 Jan 07 (or by 25 Mar 07, for repeaters) by sending an email to cosy@informatik.uni-bremen.de. If you register for a technical discussion, the email should list the names of all participants of the group (one mail per group is sufficient). Please note that the successful work on the exercises is a precondition for registering for a technical discussion or an oral exam.

Thomas Barkowsky / 11 Jan 07