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EEG/ERP Meets ACT-R: A Case Study for
Investigating Human Computation Mechanism
Shinichi Motomura, Yuya Ojima, and Ning Zhong
Maebashi Institute of Technology
460-1 Kamisadori-Cho, Maebashi-City 371-0816, Japan
motomura@maebashi-it.org, zhong@maebashi-it.ac.jp
Abstract.
EEG (electroencephalograph) provides information about
the electrical fluctuations between neurons that characterize brain ac-
tivity, and measurements of brain activity at resolutions approaching
real time. On the other hand, cognitive architectures such as ACT-R
would explain how all the components of the mind work together to
generate coherent human cognition. Thus EEG/ERP (event-related po-
tential) and ACT-R will provide two aspects to explore the cognitive
processes and their neural basis. In this paper, we present a case study
by combining EEG/ERP and ACT-R for investigating human computa-
tion mechanism. In particular, we focus on two digits addition tasks with
or without carry, and systematically perform a set of behavior and EEG
experiments, as well as with the help of ACT-R simulation. Preliminary
results show the usefulness of our approach.
1
Introduction
Multi-aspect analysis and simulation is an important methodology in Brain In-
formatics, which emphasizes on a
way for investigating human infor-
mation processing mechanisms [18,20,21]. The existing results, as reported over
the last few decades about understanding human information processing mech-
anism, are greatly related to progress of measurement and analysis technolo-
gies. EEG (electroencephalograph) is a popular, relatively handy measurement
technique that provides information about the electrical fluctuations between
neurons that characterize brain activity, and measurements of brain activity at
resolutions approaching real time. Technologies have been developed to check
the synchronous neural oscillations from EEG/ERP (event-related potential)
data, which may reveal the dynamic cognitive processes in human brain [16].
On the other hand, cognitive architectures such as ACT-R (Adaptive Control
of Thought - Rational) would explain how all the components of the mind work
together to generate coherent human cognition [1,2], which is also a kind of effort
towards conceptual modeling of the brain. Thus EEG/ERP and ACT-R will pro-
vide two aspects to infer the cognitive processes and their neural basis. Hence,
combining EEG/ERP and ACT-R might be an appropriate approach to help us
to reach the goal of investigating the spatiotemporal feature and flow of human
information processing system (HIPS) and investigating neural structures and
neurobiological processes related to the activated areas.
systematic
