Virtual International Symposium on Cognitive Architecture (VISCA 2020)

June 4-5, 2020: 10am-5:30pm EDT

Hosted by the Soar Research Group, University of Michigan

John Laird (laird@umich.edu): Organizer

VISCA-2020 is a wrap! We had 375 registrants from around the world and >160 people online at once.

Thanks to all of the speakers. Great talks!!! Videos of talks will be added soon (June 12 at the latest).

Thanks to the gods of Zoom (and the University of Michigan for having a license). One or two small glitches, but this would have not been possible even a year ago.

Thanks to my students for helping organize and run the symposia.

We will repeat next year VISCA-2021: May/June 2021. It will still be invited virtual talks, but with some twists to make it more interactive with more discussion.

Original Call: Over the last forty years, there has been continual research in cognitive architecture – the computational substructure underlying cognition. VISCA is an attempt to bring together leaders in the field to share their current research across the breadth of cognitive architecture, including research on modeling human behavior, neural-cognitive architectures, functional capabilities of cognitive architectures, components of cognitive architectures, and applications. Our goal is to enable anyone in the world to participate. Please share this webpage with colleagues and friends who might be interested.

There are no registration fees or other costs. All that we ask is that you register so we can provide you access to the symposium and the materials we collect. The symposium will be a live event, June 4-5, 10am-5:30pm EDT both days, with limited questions following each presentation (and some short breaks). We plan to capture the lectures and make them available after the symposium.

We will use Zoom Webinar for the presentations. An email will be sent to all registrants with details of how to participate. Email laird@umich.edu if you have questions.

For those interested in the Soar cognitive architecture, the Soar Workshop will be held June 3, and for those interested in broader questions of Cognitive Systems, the Advances in Cognitive Systems Conference will be help on August 10th-12th.

Speakers and Talks

SpeakerHome InstitutionTalk Title
John AndersonCarnegie Mellon UniversityLearning to Play Video Games without Instruction
Paul BelloNaval Research LabsRecent Progress on Intentions and Intentional Action in the ARCADIA Cognitive System
Dongkyu ChoiA*STAR, SingaporeAn Integrative Approach to Collaborative Intelligence
Chris EliasmithUniversity of WaterlooSpaun 2.0: Sometimes bigger is better
Ken ForbusNorthwestern University Analogy versus Rules in Cognitive Architecture
Laura HiattNaval Research LabsUsing Cognitive Models to Train Big Data Models with Small Data
David KierasUniversity of MichiganWhy Newell was Right: Constructing Explanatory Models for Visual Search
John LairdUniversity of MichiganIntroduction to Cognitive Architecture
Pat LangleyInstitute for the Study of Learning and Expertise Continuous Planning and Adaptive Control in the PUG Architecture
Christian LebiereCarnegie Mellon UniversityOptimizing Interaction Using Personalized Models of Decision Making
Chris MyersAir Force Research LabsThe Problem(s) with Synthetic Teammates
Shiwali MohanPARCExploring the Role of Common Model of Cognition in Designing Adaptive Coaching Interactions for Health Behavior Change
Frank RitterPenn State University Extending ACT-R with JSegMan to Perform a Long Task with Implications for Perception, Motor Output, Fatigue, and Motivation
Terry StewartUniversity of WaterlooUsing Neural Representations of Time and Space within a Cognitive Architecture
Andrea Stocco&
Catherine Sibert
University of WashingtonExploring Cognitive Architectures in the Era of Large Brain Data
Ron Sun & Can MekikRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteClarion and Raven’s Matrices
Niels TaatgenUniversity of GroningenUnderstanding Intelligence with a Multi-layer Cognitive Architecture
Greg Trafton Naval Research LabsMatching Cognitive Models to Individuals:  A Different Approach
Volkan Ustun & Paul RosenbloomUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe Sigma Cognitive Architecture and System
Matthew Versaggi OptumHow UHG/Optum Technology is Gearing Up to use Cognitive Technology in Healthcare