Cognitive Modeling

Responding to an explosion of new mathematical and computational models used in the fields of cognitive science, this book provides simple tutorials concerning the development and testing of such models. The authors focus on a few key models, with a primary goal of equipping readers with the fundamental principles, methods, and tools necessary for evaluating and testing any type of model encountered in the field of cognitive science.

An introduction to computational modeling for cognitive neuroscientists, covering both foundational work and recent developments. Cognitive neuroscientists need sophisticated conceptual tools to make sense of their field’s proliferation of novel theories, methods, and data. Computational modeling is such a tool, enabling researchers to turn theories into precise formulations. This book offers a mathematically gentle and theoretically unified introduction to modeling cognitive processes. Theoretical exercises of varying degrees of difficulty throughout help readers develop their modeling skills. After a general introduction to cognitive modeling and optimization, the book covers models of decision making; supervised learning algorithms, including Hebbian learning, delta rule, and backpropagation; the statistical model analysis methods of model parameter estimation and model evaluation; the three recent cognitive modeling approaches of reinforcement learning, unsupervised learning, and Bayesian models; and models of social interaction. All mathematical concepts are introduced gradually, with no background in advanced topics required. Hints and solutions for exercises and a glossary follow the main text. All code in the book is Python, with the Spyder editor in the Anaconda environment. A GitHub repository with Python files enables readers to access the computer code used and start programming themselves. The book is suitable as an introduction to modeling cognitive processes for students across a range of disciplines and as a reference for researchers interested in a broad overview.

Bayesian inference has become a standard method of analysis in many fields of science. Students and researchers in experimental psychology and cognitive science, however, have failed to take full advantage of the new and exciting possibilities that the Bayesian approach affords. Ideal for teaching and self study, this book demonstrates how to do Bayesian modeling. Short, to-the-point chapters offer examples, exercises, and computer code (using WinBUGS or JAGS, and supported by Matlab and R), with additional support available online. No advance knowledge of statistics is required and, from the very start, readers are encouraged to apply and adjust Bayesian analyses by themselves. The book contains a series of chapters on parameter estimation and model selection, followed by detailed case studies from cognitive science. After working through this book, readers should be able to build their own Bayesian models, apply the models to their own data, and draw their own conclusions.

A comprehensive introduction to the computational modeling of human cognition.

This open access book introduces a general framework that allows natural language researchers to enhance existing competence theories with fully specified performance and processing components. Gradually developing increasingly complex and cognitively realistic competence-performance models, it provides running code for these models and shows how to fit them to real-time experimental data. This computational cognitive modeling approach opens up exciting new directions for research in formal semantics, and linguistics more generally, and offers new ways of (re)connecting semantics and the broader field of cognitive science. The approach of this book is novel in more ways than one. Assuming the mental architecture and procedural modalities of Anderson's ACT-R framework, it presents fine-grained computational models of human language processing tasks which make detailed quantitative predictions that can be checked against the results of self-paced reading and other psycho-linguistic experiments. All models are presented as computer programs that readers can run on their own computer and on inputs of their choice, thereby learning to design, program and run their own models. But even for readers who won't do all that, the book will show how such detailed, quantitatively predicting modeling of linguistic processes is possible. A methodological breakthrough and a must for anyone concerned about the future of linguistics! (Hans Kamp) This book constitutes a major step forward in linguistics and psycholinguistics. It constitutes a unique synthesis of several different research traditions: computational models of psycholinguistic processes, and formal models of semantics and discourse processing. The work also introduces a sophisticated python-based software environment for modeling linguistic processes. This book has the potential to revolutionize not only formal models of linguistics, but also models of language processing more generally. (Shravan Vasishth) .

The emerging interdisciplinary field of cognitive choice models integrates theory and recent research findings from both decision process and choice behavior. Cognitive decision processes provide the interface between the environment and brain, enabling choice behavior, and the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying decision processes are fundamental to all fields of human activity. Yet cognitive processes and choice processes are often studied separately, whether by decision theorists, consumer researchers, or social scientists. In Cognitive Choice Modeling, Zheng Joyce Wang and Jerome R. Busemeyer introduce a new cognitive modeling approach to the study of human choice behavior. Integrating recent research findings from both cognitive science and choice behavior, they lay the groundwork for the emerging interdisciplinary field of cognitive choice modeling.

This thoroughly, thoughtfully revised edition of a very successful textbook makes the principles and the details of neural network modeling accessible to cognitive scientists of all varieties as well as to others interested in these models. Research since the publication of the first edition has been systematically incorporated into a framework of proven pedagogical value. Features of the second edition include: * A new section on spatiotemporal pattern processing * Coverage of ARTMAP networks (the supervised version of adaptive resonance networks) and recurrent back-propagation networks * A vastly expanded section on models of specific brain areas, such as the cerebellum, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and visual and motor cortex * Up-to-date coverage of applications of neural networks in areas such as combinatorial optimization and knowledge representation As in the first edition, the text includes extensive introductions to neuroscience and to differential and difference equations as appendices for students without the requisite background in these areas. As graphically revealed in the flowchart in the front of the book, the text begins with simpler processes and builds up to more complex multilevel functional systems. For more information visit the author's personal Web site at www.uta.edu/psychology/faculty/levine/

An accessible introduction to the principles of computational and mathematical modeling in psychology and cognitive science This practical and readable work provides students and researchers, who are new to cognitive modeling, with the background and core knowledge they need to interpret published reports, and develop and apply models of their own. The book is structured to help readers understand the logic of individual component techniques and their relationships to each other.