CAREER: A Computational Architecture for Tracking Cognitive Processes

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This is a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The research component will employ eye tracking and other means to infer the cognitive processes of people engaged in particular tasks, and will develop a computational framework, called mind-tracking architecture, for mapping observed actions to the unobserved thoughts that produce them. This work will draw upon existing psychology and engineering research and synthesize these efforts into a unified methodology. The project will employ two frameworks at different levels to achieve mind tracking: the production-system architecture ACT-R and cognitive grammars that represent behavior as rules from intentions to actions. Three specific application areas will motivate, demonstrate, and test the methodology: intelligent tutoring, automobile driver assistance, and assistive technology for the disabled. The educational component will develop a new human-computer interaction curriculum and an outreach program to foster communication among students, researchers and industry professionals. This CAREER award recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of a teacher-scholar who is likely to become an academic leader of the twenty-first century. Each of the three application areas has the potential for significant benefit to members of the general public: students, drivers, and the disabled.