Approximate modelling of cognitive activity: towards an expert system design aid

Abstract

Constructs from theoretical psychology can be used to decompose the representational and processing resources of cognition. The decomposition supports “cognitive task analysis” through which user performance can be related to the functioning of resources. Such functional relationships have been formalised and embodied in an expert system. This builds approximate models which describe cognitive activity associated with the execution of dialogue tasks. Attributes of these “cognitive task models” can be used to predict likely properties of user performance.