Travis L. Seymour, PhD

Seymour, T. L., (2022). EPICpy: A Python Interface for EPIC Computational Cognitive Modeling. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(76), 4533, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.04533

Background - Previous Way to Model Using EPIC

EPIC is a computational cognitive architecture that specifies a theory of human performance and a facility to create individual task models constrained by that theory. EPIC compacts decades of psychological theory and findings into a rich set of processors and interactions, including those that model sensory perceptual, motor, cognitive, and memory subsystems of the human mind.

EPIC currently exists as an integration between a computational version of the architecture written in C++ (EPIClib) and a GUI-based simulation environment that uses it, also written in C++ (EPICapp). EPIC only runs on MacOS, and some tasks (e.g., writing virtual tasks, or perceptual encoders) requires knowledge of the C++ programming language.

EPICpy - A New Way To Do EPIC Modeling Using Python

EPICpy is a cross-platform Python-based interface to EPIClib that allows programming task devices and perceptual encoders in the Python programming language. However, EPIClib itself is still coded in C++ that is compiled into a Python library using Pybind11.

This repository contains the source code for EPICpy.

For more information:

Detailed EPICpy Documentation

Project Sources

• EPICpy Source Repository (this repository)
• EPICpy Documentation Repository

• git: Git is a distributed version control system.

  • Linux: You almost certainly have this. Otherwise run sudo apt install git.
  • Windows: Use the installer at https://git-scm.com/
  • MacOS: Use the installer at https://git-scm.com/, or run xcode-select --install, or [RECOMMENDED] install Homebrew and then run brew install git.

• uv: uv is a Python package and project manager.

• xcb: Library implementing the client-side of the X11 display server protocol.

  • Linux Only: sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0

EPICpy can be installed on Macos 11+ (Intel or Arm), Linux, and Microsoft Windows version 10+. EPICpy can run under Python 3.10-3.14 on Linux and Macos, but only 3.10-3.13 on Windows

# uv will automatically install Python if it does not already exist.
uv tool install git+https://www.github.com/travisseymour/EPICpy.git

If you'd prefer to specify the Python version (or are on Windows at the moment):

# Feel free to change 3.12 to 3.10, 3.11, 3.13 or 3.14 (Mac & Linux only) if preferred
# If you system lacks the version you specify, uv will automatically install the specified version.
uv tool install git+https://www.github.com/travisseymour/EPICpy.git --python 3.13

If you are on Windows and EPICpy fails to run due to missing libraries, install them directly from Microsoft: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe