Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

We describe an extension of CaMeRa, a Computational model of M.ultiple Kepresentations in problem solving (Tabachneck, Leonardo. & Simon, 1994, 1995). CaMeRa provides a genera] architecture for LTM , ST M and their interactions, and illustrates how experts integrate pictorial and verbcd reasoning processes while solving problems. A linked production system and parallel network are used to further resolve the communication between pictorial and verbal knowledge by simulating how a diagram is understood by an expert. Low-level scanning processes and an attention window, based on both psychological and biological evidence, are incorporated into CaMeRa, and productions are developed that allow these processes to interface with the high-level visual rules and representations already in the model. These processes can explain interruptibility during problem solving, and show how understanding is reached when reading a novel diagram.