Handling request parameters?

[asmaloney]

In Lisp ACT-R, one can add parameters to send to modules to give them extra information. An example from the u5/grouped_model.lisp:

(p harvest-first-item
   =goal>
      isa      recall-list
      element  first
      group    =group
   =retrieval>
      isa      item
      name     =name
  ==>
   =goal>
      element  second
   +retrieval>
      isa      item
      group    =group
      position second 
      :recently-retrieved nil
   !eval! ("grouped-response" =name))

:recently-retrieved nil is a request to the buffer to check if the item has been retrieved recently or not. There are two other parameters which are supposed to be available on the retrieval buffer: mp-value and rt-value (pp. 305-306)

In addition to specifying slots in the request one may also include additional labels called request parameters. A request parameter is used like a slot in the request, but it is not actually the name of a slot. It is indicated with a Lisp keyword which has been specified by the module as allowed for use with its buffer to provide additional information in a request without having to use slots in chunks. (pg. 237)

In pyactr, they handle it their own way by adding a buffer query which seems to be a departure from vanilla ACT-R (i.e. not allowed by it). This translates to:

self.model.productionstring(name="harvest_first_item", string="""
        =g>
        isa     recall_list
        element p1
        group   =group
        =retrieval>
        isa     item
        name    =name
        ?retrieval>
        state   free
        ==>
        =g>
        isa     recall_list
        element p2
        ?retrieval>
        recently_retrieved False
        +retrieval>
        isa     item
        group   =group
        position p2""")

These are called extra_tests and it seems like recently_retrieved False is the only one handled.

These do not seem to be supported in ccm.

[asmaloney]

recently_retrieved is now handled as much as possible. It can be specified like this in a production:

recall [item: * ?group] with (recently_retrieved nil) 

Valid values are t, nil, and reset.

Only vanilla works with all values. pyactr only supports nil, while python_actr doesn't seem to support request parameters at all.

All the plumbing is in place to handle any other buffer request parameters in the future.