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Cognitive Architectures and Agents

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Abstract

A cognitive architecture is the essential structures and processes of a domain-generic computational cognitive model used for a broad, multiple-level, multiple domain analysis of cognition and behavior. This chapter reviews some of the most popular psychologically-oriented cognitive architectures, namely adaptive control of thought-rational (GlossaryTerm

ACT-R

), Soar, and CLARION. For each cognitive architecture, an overview of the model, some key equations, and a detailed simulation example are presented. The example simulation with GlossaryTerm

ACT-R

is the initial learning of the past tense of irregular verbs in English (developmental psychology), the example simulation with Soar is the well-known missionaries and cannibals problem (problem solving), and the example simulation with CLARION is a complex mine field navigation task (autonomous learning). This presentation is followed by a discussion of how cognitive architectures can be used in multi-agent social simulations. A detailed cognitive social simulation with CLARION is presented to reproduce results from organizational decision-making. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the impact of neural network modeling on cognitive architectures and a comparison of the different models.

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Abbreviations

ACS:

action-centered subsystem

ACT-R:

adaptive control of thought-rational

ANOVA:

analysis of variance

DLPFC:

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

MCS:

meta-cognitive subsystem

MS:

motivational subsystem

NACS:

non-action-centered subsystem

PSCM:

problem-space computational model

RL:

reinforcement learning

VLPFC:

ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Science Dep., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A, NY 12180, Troy, USA

    Ron Sun

  2. Dep. Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 703 Third Street, IN 47907-2081, West Lafayette, USA

    Sebastien Hélie

Authors
  1. Sebastien Hélie
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  2. Ron Sun
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastien Hélie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Systems Research Inst., Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Newelska 6, 01-447, Warsaw, Poland

    Janusz Kacprzyk

  2. Dep. Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, 116 Street 9107, T6J 2V4, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Witold Pedrycz

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Hélie, S., Sun, R. (2015). Cognitive Architectures and Agents. In: Kacprzyk, J., Pedrycz, W. (eds) Springer Handbook of Computational Intelligence. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43505-2_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43505-2_36

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43504-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43505-2

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