Integrating social sampling theory into ACT-R: a memory-based account of social judgment and influence

Cognitive architectures (CAs) have been instrumental in in- tegrating a wide range of findings in cognitive science into unified theories of cognition. However, much less effort has been devoted to applying CAs to social phenomena, despite the high interdependence between cognitive and social processes in real-world scenarios (e.g., Ecker et al., 2022). We integrated social sampling theory (SST) and ACT-R to begin filling this gap. ACT-R is a modular, hybrid symbolic/sub-symbolic CA with a detailed memory system. SST describes how beliefs and behavior emerge from an interplay between individual and so- cial motivations. The component theories have complementary strengths and weaknesses: SST provides an account of social influence and comparison, but lacks a memory system to sup- port those processes, whereas the converse is true for ACT-R. In two simulations, we demonstrate that SST-ACT-R produces social influence dynamics not present in either component the- ory. Specifically, SST-ACT-R shows how private and publicly expressed beliefs may evolve through social interactions based on social influence and underlying memory mechanisms.