“Researchers from Aalto University, University of Birmingham and University of Oslo present results paving the way for computers to learn psychologically plausible models of individuals simply by observing them. In newly published conference article, the researchers showed that just by observing how long a user takes to click menu items, one can infer a model that reproduces similar behavior and accurately estimates some characteristics of that user’s visual system, such as fixation durations. Despite significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, it has been notoriously hard for computers to understand why a user behaves the way she does. Cognitive models that describe individual capabilities, as well as goals, can much better explain and hence be able to predict individual behavior also in new circumstances. However, learning these models from the practically available indirect data has been out of reach.”