Fourth Groningen Spring School on Cognitive Modeling – ACT-R, Nengo, & PRIMs – Date: April 8-12, 2019 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands Fee: € 250 (late fee after February 15 will be € 300) More information and registration: www.cognitive-modeling.com/springschool We are happy to announce the fourth Groningen Spring School on Cognitive Modeling (April 8-12, 2019). This year, the Spring School will cover three different modeling paradigms: ACT-R, Nengo, and PRIMs. Moreover, we are finalising a fourth tutorial on error-driven learning, more details on that will follow soon. Each day will consist of theory lectures, one on each paradigm. Each modeling paradigm also includes hands-on assignments. Although students are free to choose the number of lectures they attend, we recommend students to sign up for lectures on two of the modeling paradigms, and complete the tutorial units for one of the paradigms. At the end of most days there will be a plenary research talk, to show how these different approaches to modeling are applied. On the first day, spring school students are asked to present their own research in a poster session. Like last year, we again offer the opportunity for project students to attend. The idea is that you have attended the spring school in an earlier year and now come back in the week of the spring school to work on your own modeling project under our supervision. Registration is now open. Admission is limited, so register soon! See the website www.cognitive-modeling.com/springschool for more information. Please feel free to forward the information to anyone who might be interested in the Spring School. ______________ ACT-R Teachers: Jelmer Borst & Katja Mehlhorn (University of Groningen) Website: http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu. ACT-R is a high-level cognitive theory and simulation system for developing cognitive models for tasks that vary from simple reaction time experiments to driving a car, learning algebra, and air traffic control. ACT-R can be used to develop process models of a task at a symbolic level. Participants will follow a compressed five-day version of the traditional summer school curriculum. We will also cover the connection between ACT-R and fMRI. Nengo Teacher: Terry Stewart (University of Waterloo) Website: http://www.nengo.ca Nengo is a toolkit for converting high-level cognitive theories into low-level spiking neuron implementations. In this way, aspects of model performance such as response accuracy and reaction times emerge as a consequence of neural parameters such as the neurotransmitter time constants. It has been used to model adaptive motor control, visual attention, serial list memory, reinforcement learning, Tower of Hanoi, and fluid intelligence. Participants will learn to construct these kinds of models, starting with generic tasks like representing values and positions, and ending with full production-like systems. There will also be special emphasis on extracting various forms of data out of a model, such that it can be compared to experimental data. PRIMs Teacher: Niels Taatgen (University of Groningen) Website: http://www.ai.rug.nl/~niels/actransfer.html How do people handle and prioritize multiple tasks? How can we learn something in the context of one task, and partially benefit from it in another task? The goal of PRIMs is to cross the artificial boundary that most cognitive architectures have imposed on themselves by studying single tasks. It has mechanisms to model transfer of cognitive skills, and the competition between multiple goals. In the tutorial we will look at how PRIMs can model phenomena of cognitive transfer and cognitive training, and how multiple goals compete for priority in models of distraction. -- Jelmer Borst Assistant Professor University of Groningen Dept. of Artificial Intelligence E: j.p.borst@rug.nl W: http://www.jelmerborst.nl/