Tracking the Cognitive Band in an Open-Ended Task.

Open-ended tasks can be decomposed into the three levels of Newell's Cognitive Band: the Unit-Task level, the Operation level, and the Deliberate-Act level. We analyzed the video game Co-op Space Fortress at these levels, reporting both the match of a cognitive model to subject behavior and the use of electroencephalogram (EEG) to track subject cognition. The Unit Task level in this game involves coordinating with a partner to kill a fortress.

Discovering skill.

This paper shows how identical skills can emerge either from instruction or discovery when both result in an understanding of the causal structure of the task domain. The paper focuses on the discovery process, extending the skill acquisition model of Anderson et al. (2019) to address learning by discovery.

Learning rapid and precise skills.

A theory is presented about how instruction and experience combine to produce human fluency in a complex skill. The theory depends critically on 4 aspects of the ACT-R architecture. The first is the timing of various modules, particularly motor timing, which results in behavior that closely matches human behavior.

The sequential structure of brain activation predicts skill.

In an fMRI study, participants were trained to play a complex video game. They were scanned early and then again after substantial practice. While better players showed greater activation in one region (right dorsal striatum) their relative skill was better diagnosed by considering the sequential structure of whole brain activation.

Brain regions engaged by part- and whole-task performance in a video game: a model-based test of the decomposition hypothesis.

Part- and whole-task conditions were created by manipulating the presence of certain components of the Space Fortress video game. A cognitive model was created for two-part games that could be combined into a model that performed the whole game. The model generated predictions both for behavioral patterns and activation patterns in various brain regions.

Partitioning visual displays aids task-directed visual search.

We reduced time to detect target symbols in mock radar screens by adding perceptual boundaries that partitioned displays in accordance with task instructions. Targets appeared among distractor symbols either close to or far from the display center, and participants were instructed to find the target closest to the center. Search time increased with both number of distractors and distance of target from center.

An integrated theory of the mind.

Adaptive control of thought-rational (ACT-R; J. R. Anderson & C.