Towards a cognitively realistic computational model of team problem solving using ACT-R agents and the ELICIT experimentation framework

Abstract

The aim of cognitive social simulation is to improve our understanding of the complex inter-play between factors that are spread across the cognitive, social and technological domains. This makes cognitive social simulation techniques particularly appealing as a means to undertake experiments into socially-distributed cognition. The current paper reports on the results of an ongoing effort to develop a cognitive social simulation capability that can be used to undertake studies into team cognition using the ACT-R cognitive architecture. The focus of the cognitive modeling effort associated with the development of the simulation capability is a particular team-based problem solving task that forms part of the Experimental Laboratory for Investigating Collaboration, Information-sharing, and Trust (ELICIT) experimentation framework. This task has been used with human subjects to investigate the effect of different command and control organizational structures on collective problem solving performance. The results of the cognitive modeling effort are presented and future work to extend both the simulation capability and the cognitive model are outlined. By comparing the results obtained with the ACT-R simulation capability with those obtained from previous experiments using the ELICIT experimentation framework, it should be possible to evaluate the extent to which ACT-R agents exhibit performance profiles similar to those of their human counterparts. This will support the effort to evaluate the extent to which cognitive social simulation experiments with ACT-R can be used to generate findings of predictive and explanatory relevance to future studies using the ELICIT experimentation framework.