This project looks at the Serial Addition/Subtraction Task (SAST). This task is made up of different single digit addition and subtraction problems presented in quick succession. The participants perform the problem presented to them. If the result is 10 or greater, they subtract 10 then give the result. If the result is less than 0, they add 10 and give the result. If both are false, they just present the result. Each problem is described in the following:
- Present a single digit for 200 ms
- Remove the stimulus for 200 ms
- Present a second digit for 200 ms
- Remove the stimulus for 200 ms
- Present an operator (+/-)
- Wait for a result from the participant.
Then you just need to run the "run-act-r.command" script to start ACT-R and the ACT-R environment. That script must be located in the same directory as the rest of the ACT-R files, but you may create an alias to it and put that elsewhere if that is more convenient.
When you run that script it will open a terminal window titled "ACT-R" and start the ACT-R Environment "Control Panel". Note, if you are running the script from the desktop interface and you don't see the terminal window open, then you will probably need to right click it and select "Run in terminal".
To close the ACT-R Standalone you need to close the "ACT-R" window. That will quit the terminal and the Environment will ask to verify that it should quit.
By default the software will use the localhost address for the ACT-R interface, but if you need to make external connections delete the force-local.lisp file from the patches directory before starting the software.
The "run-extra-listener.command" script can be run to open another terminal running Lisp which connects to the running ACT-R. That terminal provides functions/macros to call the ACT-R commands which are described in the tutorial and may be useful for inspecting or debugging a model. By default that terminal will not display the ACT-R model trace but it does display the other traces. If the model trace is desired in that terminal, the function include-model-trace can be called to add it. Any number of extra listeners may be run at the same time.
The "run-html-environment.command" script can be run to start an application which allows one to use an alternate version of the ACT-R Environment that is implemented in javascript and works from a browser (it can be run instead of or in addition to the default Tcl/Tk based Environment). After you start the application you should then open a browser and open the act-r.html file which is found in the ACT-R directory. It will show two links. One goes to the Environment tools and the other opens a viewer for the experiment windows created by the ACT-R AGI tools.