SANLab-CM: a tool for incorporating stochastic operations into activity network modeling.
The Stochastic Activity Network Laboratory for Cognitive Modeling (SANLab-CM) is a new tool that incorporates stochastic operations into activity network modeling (Schweickert, Fisher, & Proctor, 2003). In this article, we discuss the core functionality of SANLab-CM and walk through a case study that expands a previously published single, static path model of telephone operators interacting with customers via a workstation (from Gray, John, & Atwood, 1993) into a stochastic model that generates 55 unique paths with different frequencies and a variety of qualitative properties. Without SANLab-CM, it would have been easy to mistake some of the more frequent critical paths as evidence for alternative strategies for task completion. With SANLab-CM, these critical paths can be shown to be simple emergent properties of variability in elementary cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes.
Patton
Evan W
EW
Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA. pattoe@rpi.edu
Gray
Wayne D
WD
D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003626:Data Display; D006801:Humans; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D012984:Software; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D014584:User-Computer Interface