Both psychological experimentation and (cognitive) models are established approaches to evaluate the safety, ergonomics, and usability of Human-machine-interactions in real-life scenarios. However, they often excel at different stages in the scientific process. While psychological experiments are, for example, often used to critically assess the influence of cognitive processes in real-life environments, (cognitive) models are best used to inform how said processes influence or interact with the task environment. In real-life scenarios, the interplay between models and experimentation can be especially helpful due to the challenges that arise when evaluating these models, for example, the individual differences between humans. In this symposium, we bring together research from both experimental psychologists as well as (cognitive) modelers to foster an integrated evaluation of applied research environments that combines these methods. In the first talk, Biebl & Bengler will present their work on modeling intersection-related collision due to impaired visual ability. The second talk by Russwinkel will discuss anticipatory models for real-life decisions. The third talk summarizes an evidence accumulation model of a driving task. The fourth talk by Baumann et al. showcases several examples in modeling cooperation in traffic while highlighting the potential difficulties that can arise in the process. The last talk by Held et al. presents an ACT-R model, which attempts to explain an often-observed behavior of decreased driving performance in mundane driving environments and why this effect can be reversed by a low-effort mental task. The symposium will end with a moderated discussion between the speakers and the audience.