Changes

Version 5.1

from version 5.1.4 to 5.1.5

  • improved the output of the instances() method

  • adjusted some issues raised by changes to recent versions of several of PyIBL’s dependencies

  • improved the documentation

from version 5.1.3 to 5.1.4

  • Fixed a bug exhibited when default_utility was set to exactly zero.

from version 5.1.1 to 5.1.3

  • Added noise_distribution.

from version 5.1 to 5.1.1

  • Fixed a bug which caused some rows to be omitted from the aggregate_details; since the plot() method depends upon the aggregate_details plots weere sometimes incorrect, too.

Version 5.0

from version 5.0.4 to 5.1

  • Added the aggregate_details attribute.

  • Added the plot() method.

from version 5.0.2 to 5.0.4

  • The sequence of all attribute names is now a tuple of strings rather than a list.

from version 5.0.1 to 5.0.3

  • Add further information to trace output.

  • Update some copyrights and documentation.

from version 5.0 to 5.0.1

  • Update copyrights, documentation and dependencies.

  • Fix a bug afflicting tracing when noise is zero.

from version 4.2 to 5.0

  • PyIBL now requires Python 3.8 or later.

  • Substantial changes were made to the internal representations of agents and instances enabling faster IBL computations in many use cases involving large numbers of instances.

  • Agent attributes can now be any non-empty string, and the arguments to the Agent constructor are now in a different order.

  • Changed the arguments to choose(), populate() and forget().

  • Similarity functions are now per-Agent instead of global, and are set with the similarity() method.

  • Similarities can now have weights, also set with the similarity() method, allowing easier balancing of the contributions of multiple attributes.

  • The advance() method has been added to the API.

  • The choose2() method has been replaced by an optional argument to choose().

  • The populate_at() method has been replaced by an optional argument to populate().

  • There is a new method discrete_blend() useful for creating models using a different paradigm from PyIBL’s usual choose()/respond() cycle.

  • It is now possible to set optimized_learning as an Agent parameter in the usual way, instead of as an argument to reset(). In addition, optimized_learning can now take positive integers as its value, enabling a mixed mode of operation.

  • The default value of default_utility_populates is now False, and it can be set at Agent creation time with an argument to the constructor.

  • There is a new Agent property, fixed_noise, allowing a variant noise generation scheme for unusual models.

  • General tidying and minor bug fixes.

When upgrading existing version 4.x models to version 5.0 or later some syntactic changes will nearly always have to be made. In particular, PyIBL no longer abuses Python’s keyword arguments, and lists of choices now need to be passed to choose() and populate(), which now also take their arguments in a different order. In simple cases this is as easy as surrounding the formerly trailing arguments by square bracket, and swapping the result two arguments. For more complex cases it may be necessary to pass a list of dictionaries. For example, what in version 4.x would have been expressed as

a.populate(10, "red", "blue")
a.choose("red", "blue")

could be expressed in version 5.0 as

a.populate(["red", "blue"], 10)
a.choose(["red", "blue"])

If you are using partial matching you will also have to replace calls to the similarity() function by the Agent’s similarity() method. This method also takes slightly different arguments than the former function. For example, what in version 4.x would have been expressed as

similarity(cubic_similarity, "weight", "volume")

could be expressed in version 5.0 as

a.similarity(["weight", "volume"], cubic_similarity)

Older versions

from version 4.2 to 4.2.0.1

  • PyIBL is now distributed via PyPi and need no longer be downloaded from the DDMLab website.

from version 4.1 to 4.2

  • The choose2() method has been added to the API.

  • The respond() method now takes a second, optional argument.

  • There is more flexability possible when partially matching attributes.

  • PyIBL now requires Pythonn verison 3.7 or later.

  • General tidying and minor bug fixes.

from version 4.0 to 4.1

  • The API for DelayedFeedback has been changed.

  • The reset() now has an additional, optional argument, preserve_prepopulated.

  • Some minor bug fixes.

from version 3.0 to 4.0

  • Situations and SituationDecisions are no longer needed. Choices are now ordinary Python objects, such as dicts and lists.

  • The overly complex logging mechanism was a rich source of confusion and bugs. It has been eliminated, and replaced by a simpler mechanism, details, which facilitates the construction of rich log files in whatever forms may be desired.

  • Populations were rarely used, badly understood and even when they were used were mostly just used to facilitate logging from multiple agents; in version 4.0 populations have been eliminated, though they may come back in a different form in a future version of PyIBL.

  • Methods and attributes are now uniformly spelled in snake_case instead of camelCase.

  • Many attributes of Agents can now be specified when they are created.

  • Similarities are now shared between Agents, by attribute name, rather than being specific to an Agent.

  • Several common similarity functions are predefined.

  • The current time can now be queried.

  • Delayed feedback is now supported.

  • PyIBL is now built on top of PyACTUp.

  • Some bugs have been fixed, and things have been made generally tidier internally.

from version 2.0 to 3.0

  • Similarity and partial matching are now implemented.

  • SituationDecisions have changed completely, and are no longer created by an Agent.

  • Logging has changed substantially: there can be multiple, differently configured logs; it is now possible to have per-Agent logs, not just Population-wide logs; and logging configuration now controls not just which columns are shown, but the order in which they appear.

  • Default values of noise and decay are now 0.25 and 0.5, respectively, matching oral common practice in ACT-R, instead of ACT-R’s out of the box defaults, which are rarely useful.

  • General internal tidying

    Warning

    Note that version 3.0 was never publicly released though preliminary internal development versions of it were used for a variety of experiments, both within the DDMLab and elsewhere.

from version 1.0 to 2.0

  • Agents are now publicly visible objects that can be passed around and moved from one Population to another. The API has completely changed so that you no longer cite an agent by name in a Population.

  • Options presented to Agents are no longer merely decisions, but include situations as well.

  • Logging is configured with strings rather than constants.

  • Logging can now be configured to include or exclude unused options and instances.

  • Bug fixes, particularly in logging.

  • Better documentation.

  • General internal tidying