This book presents the newest evolution of Anderson's ACT theory, replete with applications to areas as analogical learning, action, choice, and cognitive arithmetic. For all cognitive scientists and advanced educational researchers.
Reflecting decades of research into ACT-R theory, this book seeks to display what the theory can do by collecting together and describing some of its in-house applications.
"This is an important book for everyone interested in the simulation of human intelligent behavior. It puts forward a compelling theory that provides hope that unification in cognitive science is not lost, and it could rescue cognitive science from Kuhnian chaos."—Trends in Cognitive Sciences"Anderson and Lebiere's description of the ACT-R theory is definitely the most advanced path toward realizing Newell's dream of a unified theory of cognition within the areas of psychology and cognitive science. It will continue to stimulate important theoretical and empirical research."—Journal of Mathematical Psychology"...a clear, up-to-date presentation of one of the dominant theories in cognitive science. Anderson and his colleagues argue that there are basic (and identifiable) symbolic units of thought, both for declarative and procedural knowledge. Their theory accounts for data across an unusually wide variety of cognitive activities, and thus provides a strong challenge to other views that attempt to explain cognition without these units. In addition, the book provides pointers to the corresponding simulations available on the Web so that interested readers can get hands-on experience with the models. This is an important book for cognitive scientists wanting to keep up with the work on unified theories of cognition."—Brian RossUniversity of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana"...Anderson raises the bar on what it means to theorize in cognitive science. The combination of clearly framed theoretical issues, empirical data, and runnable models make the inner workings of the ACT-R theory accessible to all serious cognitive researchers. The Atomic Components of Thought brings ACT-R several steps closer to realizing Newell's dream of a unified theory of cognition. Also important, it will provide those students and researchers who have never modeled with a rich source of detailed and runnable examples. I predict that a major impact of this book will be an increase in the number of researchers and journals who consider a computational cognitive model as a standard accompaniment to any credible research report."—Wayne D. GrayGeorge Mason University"Anyone interested in cognitive architecture, or more broadly in the scientific study of mental processes, should read this book. It presents not only important progress in the development of a comprehensive and coherent account of a very broad range of cognitive phenomena, but also interesting ideas about how research in this area can be better organized to promote fruitful exchange of ideas."—Clayton LewisUniversity of Colorado
