Progress in modeling through distributed collaboration: concepts, tools and category-learning examples

Formal modeling in psychology is failing to live up to its potential due to a lack of effective collaboration. As a first step towards solving this problem, we have produced a set of freely available tools for distributed collaboration. This article describes those tools and the conceptual framework behind them. We also provide concrete examples of how these tools can be used. The approach we propose enhances, rather than supplants, more traditional forms of publication. All the resources for this project are freely available from the catlearn website http://catlearn.r-forge.r-project.org/