Adamson Wing, Baker Hall
T/Th 9:00-10:20
| Fall 2000
Adamson Wing, Baker Hall T/Th 9:00-10:20 |
|
85-411/85-711/15-886A
Cognitive Processes and Problem Solving
COGNITIVE THEORIES IN THE FORM OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS
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version of this list.
The theories of thinking that we will use in this course take the form of computer programs. The behavioral consequences of the theories are found by running the programs in appropriate task environments. We have provided access to a number of these theories via Macintosh computers, which are readily available at various computer clusters on campus.
Running these programs is by far the most effective (and easiest) way to gain an understanding of the theory of human mental processes that lies at the heart of this course. Several homework assignments will use these programs, but you should not limit your use of them to the assignments.
Programs for the Macintosh accessible through the Andrew server
1. Hypercard stacks, which you will use to examine various psychological processes.
2. The EPAM program, a quite general theory of perceptual and memory processes that will be discussed extensively in class. The program will allow you to run EPAM to show how it memorizes a list of three words and to display the discrimination net it learns in the process.
3. OPS5, a production system which will also be the focus of two assignments.
4. PAW, a tool for verbal protocol analysis that will be used in one of the homework assignments, and which you may also find helpful for your term project.
Class Macintosh Software accessible through the Andrew server
1. A variety of programs that perform problem-solving tasks.
2. Some additional memory experiments.
These programs are accessed through the Andrew server (see instructions below). The class software (used for the homework assignments) can also be accessed from the “Homework Assignments” links on the course web page.
These programs were written for the Mac GUI and so they have to be run from one of the Mac machines in the Computer Clusters. If you have your own Mac at home, you may use it to run these programs.
The following pages will guide you in the use of the programs.
Accessing the server
1. Find a Mac on campus.
2. From the AppleMenu (upper left hand corner) open the "Chooser" option.
3. In the Chooser window, click on the "AppleShare" icon (upper left).
4. In the "AppleTalk Zones" dialog box (lower left), choose the "BH" zone.
5. From the Chooser window on the right side of the screen where it reads "Select a file server", click on "HSSHELIOS".
6. Click the"OK" button.
7. Make sure the "Registered User" button is darkened, not "Guests." In the "Name" area, type "85411-711", and in the "Password" area type "probsolv". Click on "OK" button.
8. Select "Class" in the resulting window (it may already be highlighted). Don’t put a check in the box, just highlight the word. Click "OK".
9. Close the Chooser window by clicking in the box in the upper left hand corner.
10. Open the "Class" server by double clicking on it's icon on the desktop.
11. Open the "85411-711" folder by double clicking on it.
Here, you will find programs (including their source codes) in the appropriately
named folder “Programs” and software you need to do the homework assignments
in the folder “Homework”. Other folders contain softcopies of documents
used during the course.
Running the class software
Before running the software, it is important to copy the files and application programs to your local machine, otherwise the programs will not run properly!
To do this, follow the following steps:
1. Locate the folder “User Files” on your desktop and open it by double clicking on the folder icon. (This is the only folder on your local Mac that you have full read, write and execute privileges).
2. Locate the folder that contains the class software that you require in the “85411-711” folder that you had opened earlier. For homework assignments, this would be the folder “Homework”. Open the folder by double clicking on it.
3. You may close the top level folders which you no longer need (e.g. “Class” and “85411-711”) by clicking in the box in the upper left hand corner of each folder window. Now you should only have the two folders “User Files” and “Homework” open on your desktop.
4. From within “Homework”, drag the folder that you need (e.g. “Homework #1”) and drop it in the “User Files” folder. This should copy the folder onto your local Mac machine.
5. You can then run the copied programs by double-clicking on the appropriate
file.
Using the class web page to access class software
1. Launch Netscape on your computer and browse to
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/85-711/
2. Click on the link which says “Homework Assignments” or scroll to the section on “Homework Assignments”.
3. Click on the appropriate assignment (e.g. “Homework #1”). This will automatically download the software required for the week’s homework assignments and create a folder “HWn.hqx.folder” on your machine where n = 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
4. Depending on how your machine is setup, this folder is either:
· Created automatically on your desktop, in which case you should
drag it into the folder “User Files” before running the programs.
· Or, you will be prompted for a location to create the folder,
in which case you should select “User Files” as the location.
5. You can now run the programs by double-clicking on the appropriate file.