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Why games? How could anyone consider action games an experimental paradigm for Cognitive Science? In 1973, as one of three strategies he proposed for advancing Cognitive Science, Allen Newell exhorted us to "accept a single complex task and do all of it." More specifically, he told us that rather than taking an "experimental psychology as usual approach," we should "focus on a series of experimental and theoretical studies around a single complex task" so as to demonstrate that our theories of human cognition were powerful enough to explain "a genuine slab of human behavior" with the studies fitting into a detailed theoretical picture. Action games represent the type of experimental paradigm that Newell was advocating and the current state of programming expertise and laboratory equipment, along with the emergence of Big Data and naturally occurring datasets, provide the technologies and data needed to realize his vision. Action games enable us to escape from our field's regrettable focus on novice performance to develop theories that account for the full range of expertise through a twin focus on expertise sampling (across individuals) and longitudinal studies (within individuals) of simple and complex tasks., (Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.)

The framework of "plateaus, dips, and leaps" shines light on periods when individuals may be inventing new methods of skilled performance. We begin with a review of the role "performance plateaus" have played in (a) experimental psychology, (b) human-computer interaction, and (c) cognitive science. We then reanalyze two classic studies of individual performance to show plateaus and dips which resulted in performance leaps. For a third study, we show how the statistical methods of "Changepoint Analysis" plus a few simple heuristics may direct our focus to periods of performance change for individuals. For the researcher, dips become the marker of exploration where performance suffers as new methods are invented and tested. Leaps mark the implementation of a successful new method and an incremental jump above the path plotted by smooth and steady log--log performance increments. The methods developed during these dips and leaps are the key to surpassing one's teachers and acquiring extreme expertise.

Visual working memory (VWM) is a construct hypothesized to store a small amount of accurate perceptual information that can be brought to bear on a task. Much research concerns the construct's capacity and the precision of the information stored. Two prominent theories of VWM representation have emerged: slot-based and continuous-resource mechanisms. Prior modeling work suggests that a continuous resource that varies over trials with variable capacity and a potential to make localization errors best accounts for the empirical data. Questions remain regarding the variability in VWM capacity and precision. Using a novel eye-tracking paradigm, we demonstrate that VWM facilitates search and exhibits effects of fixation frequency and recency, particularly for prior targets. Whereas slot-based memory models cannot account for the human data, a novel continuous-resource model does capture the behavioral and eye tracking data, and identifies the relevant resource as item activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including the rationality of human cognition and the papers presented at the Cognitive Science Society Annual conference and the International Conference on Cognitive Modeling.

This paper brings the intellectual tools of cognitive science to bear on resolving the “paradox of the active user” [Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human–Computer Interaction, Cambridge, MIT Press, MA, USA]—the persistent use of inefficient procedures in interactive tasks by experienced or even expert users when demonstrably more efficient procedures exist. The goal of this paper is to understand the roots of this paradox by finding regularities in these inefficient procedures. We examine three very different data sets. For each data set, we first satisfy ourselves that the preferred procedures used by some subjects are indeed less efficient than the recommended procedures. We then amass evidence, for each set, and conclude that when a preferred procedure is used instead of a more efficient, recommended procedure, the preferred procedure tends to have two major characteristics: (1) the preferred procedure is a well-practiced, generic procedure that is applicable either within the same task environment in different contexts or across different task environments, and (2) the preferred procedure is composed of interactive components that bring fast, incremental feedback on the external problem states. The support amassed for these characteristics leads to a new understanding of the paradox. In interactive tasks, people are biased towards the use of general procedures that start with interactive actions. These actions require much less cognitive effort as each action results in an immediate change to the external display that, in turn, cues the next action. Unfortunately for the users, the bias to use interactive unit tasks leads to a path that requires more effort in the long run. Our data suggest that interactive behavior is composed of a series of distributed choices; that is, people seldom make a once-and-for-all decision on procedures. This series of biased selection of interactive unit tasks often leads to a stable suboptimal level of performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Scaled worlds preserve certain functional relationships of a complex task environment while paring away others. The functional relationships preserved are defined by the questions of interest to the researcher. Different scaled worlds of the same task may preserve and pare away different functional relationships. In this paper we use the example of Ned to discuss the use of scaled worlds in applied cognitive research. Ned is based on a detailed cognitive task analysis of submarine approach officers as they attempt to localize an enemy submarine hiding in deep water. For Ned we attempted to preserve the functional relationships inherent in the approach officer's information environment while paring away other aspects of his task environment. Scaled worlds attempt to maintain the realism inherent in the preserved functional relationship while being tractable for the researcher and engaging to the participant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including cognitive science, language use, and global change.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the nature and definition of naturally occurring data sets (NODS), the impact of human data in electronic format on cognitive research, and psychological principles by mining data sets.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including views of cognitive scientists on climate science, cognitive science and human cognition.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue including "Thirty Years After Marr's Vision" and topics related to three levels of cognitive science and papers that won awards for excellence at the Cognitive Science Conference in 2014.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including formal learning theory, mathematical aspects and data sharing policy in cognitive science.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including computational methods to extract meaning from a text, theories of human cognition and cognitive science.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including cognitive science, science and technology, and cognitive neuropsychology.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on cognition science-related topics including the effect of aging on cognition, modeling of cognitive processes and the need of anthropology for cognitive science.

An introduction is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topic including music cognition and the cognitive science, embodied cognition as a practical paradigm, and anthropology and cognitive science.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the relationship of cognitive science and anthropology.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including a debate on the complex systems approach to cognitive science and the best papers that have appeared at cognitive science conferences.

The article presents the author's insights regarding the updates in the "Topics in Cognitive Science" (topiCS), Volume 3, Issue 4. The author states that within the issue, the third volume of on-time publication with regards to the collections of commentaries and advanced research has been completed. He says that empirical models and studies of spatial cognition is already a central subject of cognitive science. Meanwhile, he invites new topics and commentaries for topiCS.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the philosophy of cognitive science and the dynamic models in cognitive science.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discusses various reports within the issue on topics including research on cognitive control, debates on cognitive science, and invites commentaries on related topics.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics such as cognition in science and technology, and collective behavior.

The article discusses various topics published within the issue including one Daniel Dennett on the part of cognitive science that is philosophy and another one by Paul Thagard on the importance of philosophy in cognitive science and vice versa.