<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Creating robust, reproducible and optimal computational models is a key challenge for theorists in many sciences. Psychology and cognitive science face particular challenges as large amounts of data are collected and many models are not amenable to analytical techniques for calculating parameter sets. Particular problems are to locate the full range of acceptable model parameters for a given dataset, and to confirm the consistency of model parameters across different datasets. Resolving these problems will provide a better understanding of the behaviour of computational models, and so support the development of general and robust models. In this article, we address these problems using evolutionary algorithms to develop parameters for computational models against multiple sets of experimental data; in particular, we propose the ‘speciated non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm’ for evolving models in several theories. We discuss the problem of developing a model of categorisation using twenty-nine sets of data and models drawn from four different theories. We find that the evolutionary algorithms generate high quality models, adapted to provide a good fit to all available data.</p></abstract>

Creating robust, reproducible and optimal computational models is a key challenge for theorists in many sciences. Psychology and cognitive science face particular challenges as large amounts of data are collected and many models are not amenable to analytical techniques for calculating parameter sets. Particular problems are to locate the full range of acceptable model parameters for a given dataset, and to confirm the consistency of model parameters across different datasets. Resolving these problems will provide a better understanding of the behaviour of computational models, and so support the development of general and robust models. In this article, we address these problems using evolutionary algorithms to develop parameters for computational models against multiple sets of experimental data; in particular, we propose the ‘speciated non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm’ for evolving models in several theories. We discuss the problem of developing a model of categorisation using twenty-nine sets of data and models drawn from four different theories. We find that the evolutionary algorithms generate high quality models, adapted to provide a good fit to all available data.

Evolving Non-Dominated Parameter Sets for Computational Models from Multiple Experiments

School of Computer Science University of Hertfordshire Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK

School of Social Sciences Brunel University Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK

Journal of Artificial General Intelligence

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Creating robust, reproducible and optimal computational models is a key challenge for theorists in many sciences. Psychology and cognitive science face...

Evolving Non-Dominated Parameter Sets for Computational Models from Multiple Experiments

Published Online: Apr 25, 2014

Page range: 1 - 30

Received: Jun 15, 2011

Accepted: Jul 06, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jagi-2013-0001

© Peter C. R. Lane, Fernand Gobet

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.