About
Traditionally, cognitive modeling was taught using general-purpose programming languages like Prolog and Poplog or complex modeling environments (such as ACT*, Anderson, 1983; SOAR, Newell, 1990), both of which were too complex for undergraduate teaching.
Hank was a new cognitive modelling language designed to be easily understood by non-programmers, simple enough to use on paper, yet powerful enough to model non-trivial psychological theories. It was developed to overcome the shortcomings of earlier approaches like SOLO and Prolog, which had been used in undergraduate cognitive psychology courses.
Hank was designed to meet several requirements: building cognitive models, describing processes, group use, ease of ‘programming on paper,’ and accessibility for non-programmers. It consisted of two main parts: a database containing ‘fact cards’ and ‘instruction cards,’ and a question processor that interpreted these cards to generate the model’s behavior. The processor used a workspace resembling a comic strip storyboard to visually depict the model’s behavior.
The database was represented graphically, with fact cards as small spreadsheets and instruction cards as flowcharts, making it intuitive for non-programmers. The question processor followed a simple, step-by-step procedure, allowing users to act out their models according to clear rules.
Hank was conceived, designed, and implemented by Paul Mulholland and Stuart Watt of the Knowledge Media Institute and Department of Psychology at the Open University, UK, with feedback from various colleagues and testers. It was named in tribute to Hank Kahney, whose work on SOLO and views on cognitive modelling inspired the creation of Hank.
Articles
Mulholland, P. and Watt, S. N. K. (2000). Learning by building: A visual modelling language for psychology students. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 11 (5), 481-504.
Mulholland, P. and Watt, S. N. K. (1999). Programming with a purpose: Hank, gardening and schema theory. In Collected Papers of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds. (PDF 599K).
Mulholland, P. and Watt, S. N. K. (1998). Hank: A Friendly Cognitive Modelling Language for Psychology Students. In Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, VL ’98, Nova Scotia, Canada. (189K).
Watt, S. N. K. and Mulholland, P. (1998). Hank: A cognitive modelling language for humans. CiP98, Computers in Psychology Conference, University of York.
Mulholland, P. and Watt, S. N. K. (1998). Hank: A cognitive modelling language for psychology students. In Collected Papers of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, The Open University, Milton Keynes.
