ACTRSimulators

ACTRSimulators.jl is a package for developing discrete event simulations of the ACT-R cognitive architecture. Although the basic framework for conducting simulations has been developed, currently some features of ACT-R have not been implimented.

Example

As a simple example, we will develop an ACT-R model of the psychomotor vigilence task (PVT). The PVT is a reaction time task used to measure vigilance decrements stemming from fatigue. On each trial, a stimulus is presented after a random delay lasting 2 to 10 seconds. Once a response is made by keystroke, the next trial begins. Key components of the code will be described below. The full source code can be found in Examples/PVT_Example.

After installing ACTRSimulators.jl, the first step is to load the following dependencies.

using ACTRSimulators
import ACTRSimulators: start!, press_key!, repaint!
include("PVT.jl")
include("PVT_Model.jl")
import_gui()

Next, create an event scheduler as follows. When the option model_trace is set to true, a description and execution time will print for each processed model event. Task events can be added to the trace with task_trace.

scheduler = ACTRScheduler(;model_trace=true)

A task object is created with the PVT constructor, which includes options for the number of trials, whether the GUI is visible and whether the task executes in real time.

task = PVT(;scheduler, n_trials=2, visible=true, realtime=true)

Now we will initialize the model. The model consists of components for the following modules:

• procedural memory
• visual_location
• visual

Each of the modules are passed to the actr model object along with a reference to the scheduler.

procedural = Procedural()
T = vo_to_chunk() |> typeof
visual_location = VisualLocation(buffer=T[])
visual = Visual(buffer=T[])
motor = Motor()
actr = ACTR(;scheduler, procedural, visual_location, visual, motor)

Production Rules

A production rule consists of higher order functions: one for the conditions and another for the actions. The PVT model uses three production rules: wait for the stimulus to appear, attend to the stimulus once it appears, respond to the stimulus after attending to it.

Conditions

The conditions for a production rule is a set of functions that return a Bool or a utility value proportional to the degree of match. By convention, the name for the conditions for a production rule is prefixed by "can". For example, can_wait returns a set of functions that evaluate the conditions for executing the wait production rule. Each condition requires an actr model object.

Wait

The model will wait if the visual_location and visual buffers are empty and the same modules are not busy.

function can_wait(actr)
    c1(actr) = actr.visual_location.state.empty
    c2(actr) = actr.visual.state.empty
    c3(actr) = !actr.visual.state.busy
    c4(actr) = !actr.motor.state.busy
    return c1, c2, c3, c4
end

Attend

Upon stimulus presentation, a visual object is "stuffed" into the visual_location buffer. The attend production rule will execute if the visual_location buffer is not empty and the visual module is not busy.

function can_attend(actr)
    c1(actr) = !actr.visual_location.state.empty
    c2(actr) = !actr.visual.state.busy
    return c1, c2
end

Respond

Once the model attends to the stimulus, it can execute a response. The respond production rule will fire if the visual buffer is not empty and the motor module is not busy.

function can_respond(actr)
    c1(actr) = !actr.visual.state.empty
    c2(actr) = !actr.motor.state.busy
    return c1, c2
end

Actions

After a production rule is selected, a set of actions are executed that modify the architecture and possibly modify the exeternal environment. Each production rule is associated with an action function. For example, the action function for the production rule wait is wait_action. Each action requires an actr model object and a task object or args... if the task is note used.

Wait

The purpose of the wait production rule is to surpress the execution of other production rules when the stimulus has not appeared. There is not time cost associated with firing the wait production rule. Accordingly, an empty function ()->() is immediately registered to the scheduler using the keyword now.

function wait_action(actr, args...)
    description = "Wait"
    register!(actr.scheduler, ()->(), now; description)
    return nothing
end

Attend

When the attend production rule is selected, the chunk in the visual_location buffer is copied and passed to the function attending, which adds the chunk after a time delay that represents the time to shift visual attention. In addition, the buffer for visual_location is immediately cleared.

function attend_action(actr, args...)
    buffer = actr.visual_location.buffer
    chunk = deepcopy(buffer[1])
    clear_buffer!(actr.visual_location)
    attending!(actr, chunk)
    return nothing
end

Respond

The function respond_action is executed upon selection of the respond production rule. The function respond_action performs two actions: (1) clear the visual buffer and (2) executes the function responding! which executes the motor response after a delay and calls the user-defined function press_key. The model uses press_key to interact with the task and collect data.

function respond_action(actr, task)
    clear_buffer!(actr.visual)
    key = "sb"
    responding!(actr, task, key)
    return nothing
end

Construct Production Rules

The constructor Rule creates a production rule from the following keyword arguments:

• conditions: a list of functions representing selection conditions
• action: a function that performs the actions of the production rule
• actr: a reference to the ACTR model object
• task: a reference to the PVT task
• name: an optional name for the production rule

Each production rule is pushed into a vector located in the procedural memory object.

conditions = can_attend()
rule1 = Rule(;conditions, action=attend_action, actr, task, name="Attend")
push!(procedural.rules, rule1)
conditions = can_wait()
rule2 = Rule(;conditions, action=wait_action, actr, task, name="Wait")
push!(procedural.rules, rule2)
conditions = can_respond()
rule3 = Rule(;conditions, action=respond_action, actr, task, name="Respond")
push!(procedural.rules, rule3)

Now that the model and task have been defined, we can now run the model simulation. A GUI will appear upon running the following code:

run!(actr, task)