Fifteenth annual ACT-R Summer School and Workshop
Carnegie Mellon University
July 9-20, 2008


ACT-R is a cognitive theory and simulation system for developing cognitive models for tasks that vary from simple reaction time to air traffic control. The most recent advances of the ACT-R theory were detailed in the following paper: 


Anderson, J. R., Bothell, D., Byrne, M. D., Douglass, S.,  Lebiere, C., and Qin, Y . (2004). An integrated theory of the mind.  Psychological Review 111, (4). 1036-1060, available online: http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/publications/pubinfo.php?id=526


and in the following book:


Anderson, J. R. (2007) How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? New York: Oxford University Press.


Each year, a summer school is held to train researchers in the use of the ACT-R system. The summer school is followed by a three-day ACT-R workshop.


Summer School
The summer school will take place from Wednesday July 9 to Thursday July 17. This intensive 9-day course is designed to train researchers in the use of ACT-R for cognitive modeling. It is structured as a set of six units, with each unit lasting a day and involving a morning theory lecture, an afternoon discussion session and an assignment which participants are expected to complete during the day and evening. In addition, participants are expected to bring a project of their own to the summer school on which they can work during the remaining three days. Computing facilities will be provided or attendees can bring their own laptop on which the ACT-R software will be installed.


To provide an optimal learning environment, admission is limited to a dozen participants, who must submit by April 1 an application consisting of a curriculum vitae, a statement of purpose, and a description of the project they would like to do during the summer school. This project can be based on data from the applicant's own research, or an experimental study from the literature. We encourage applicants to browse through the tutorial texts to get a sense of the kind of experiments that are appropriate for a successful project (the tutorial text is part of the ACT-R distribution, which can be downloaded from http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/actr6/).  Demonstrated experience with a modeling formalism similar to ACT-R will strengthen the application, as well as general programming experience. Applicants will be notified of admission by May 4.
Admission to the summer school is free. Housing will be provided in the CMU dormitories for approximately /day (single) or /day (shared). 


More information, including papers published by the ACT-R community, can be found on the ACT-R web site (http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/).




ACT-R Workshop
The ACT-R workshop will take place from Friday July 18 to Sunday July 20.  Mornings will be devoted to research presentations, each lasting about 20 minutes plus questions. Participants are invited to present their ACT-R research by submitting a one-page abstract with their registration. Afternoons will feature discussion sessions and instructional tutorials.  Suggestions for the topics of the tutorials and discussion sessions are welcome.  Friday afternoon will feature a presentation by an invited speaker.


Admission to the workshop is open to all.  The early registration fee (before July 1) is 0 and the late registration fee (after July 1) is 5.  Informal proceedings of past workshops can be found on the ACT-R web site (http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/workshops/). Requests for presentations should be submitted before July 1 to receive full consideration for inclusion in the workshop program.  A preliminary program of presentations will be made available in early July.  The workshop is scheduled to just precede the Cognitive Science conference which takes place in Washington, DC from July 23 to 26. (http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci.html). Housing and computing facilities will be provided at CMU during the workshop, and from July 20 to 23 for workshop participants who wish to stay on to work on their ACT-R projects and collaborate with other researchers until the start of Cogsci.


Further details on how to register for the workshop will follow.


An application form for the summer school is appended below.  




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Fifteenth Annual ACT-R Summer School
July 9 to 17, 2008 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh


                                REGISTRATION
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Name:     ..................................................................


Address:  ..................................................................


Tel/Fax:  ..................................................................


Email:    ..................................................................




 
Send this form, curriculum vitae, statement of purpose and a description of the project by email (preferred) or regular mail to:


2008 ACT-R Summer School
Psychology Department
Niels Taatgen
Baker Hall 345B                                       Fax: +1 (412) 268-2844
Carnegie Mellon University                      Tel: +1 (412) 268-2815
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890                      Email: taatgen@cmu.edu