Presents perspectives on methodological assumptions underlying research efforts in artificial intelligence (AI) and charts activities, motivations, methods, and current status of research in each of the major AI subareas: natural language understanding; computer vision; expert systems; search, problem solving, planning; theorem proving and logic…

As a demonstration of the application of heuristic devices to decision-theoretical techniques, an interactive computer program known as MAUD (Multiattribute Utility Decomposition) has been designed to support decision or choice problems that can be decomposed into component factors, or to act as a tool for investigating the microstructure of a…

This paper discusses the incorporation of heuristics in computerized decision aids that are used for structuring decision problems. Decision theory is described in terms of linked subsystems, and sites where it is necessary to employ heuristic rather than normative, algorithmic procedures are identified. Production systems are then used to…

This paper, which addresses the issue of representation as an internal construct corresponding to an external abstract configuration, attempts to extend A. A. DiSessa's phenomenological primitives to mathematics (particularly to the notion of circle). Various acceptations of the word representation are examined, using the notion of a circle as an…

The purpose of the study was to survey self-regulation while responding to the addition facts. First graders' performance on microcomputer practice exercises was observed and recorded. Subjects could choose an analytic mode of operation using a symbolic or a finger strategy; or, they could choose a geometric mode of operation using a pictorial or…

Overview of expert systems (intelligent computer applications that use data, a knowledge base, and a control mechanism to solve problems) highlights history of expert systems; construction (human element, knowledge acquisition and learning, system architecture); limitations; issues and trends; and implications for information science. Thirty-three…

The theme of the sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of Psychology of Mathematics Education was "The Importance of Psychological Models for Research in Mathematics Learning." The conference proceedings contain papers organized around five major topics. In the first section, eight papers on the learning of arithmetic are…

Reviews approaches to machine learning (development of techniques to automate acquisition of new information, skills, and ways of organizing existing information) in symbolic domains. Four categorical tasks addressed in machine learning literature are examined: learning from examples, learning search heuristics, learning by observation, and…

As part of an ongoing effort to understand the processes people employ in reading technical material and the ways in which computer based job aids can assist people in doing complex tasks, a study was conducted to determine how subjects engaged in an assembly task use a detailed and hierarchically organized information structure (Hypertext) to…

Several directions for potential research efforts in the field of computer-based education (CBE) are discussed. (For the purposes of this paper, CBE is defined as any use of computers to promote learning with no intended inference as to the specific nature or organization of the educational application under discussion.) Efforts should be directed…

A broad range of well-structured problems--embracing forms of diagnosis, catalog selection, and skeletal planning--are solved in expert computer systems by the method of heuristic classification. These programs have a characteristic inference structure that systematically relates data to a pre-enumerated set of solutions by abstraction, heuristic…

Describes a computer program under development that is to be used as a tool for theory builders, teachers, and students in language learning. This is an interactive program and not only helps the learning of a language but also provides analysis on how language is learned. Questions if computers learn. (GG)

Three research efforts that used computer-based simulations for maintenance training were in progress when this report was written: Game-Based Learning, which investigated the use of computer-based games to train electronics diagnostic skills; Human Performance in Fault Diagnosis Tasks, which evaluated the use of context-free tasks to train…

This paper reports on the effects of structuring problem solving activities of novices in the domain of physics in a way consistent with the problem solving approaches used by experts. A total of 42 undergraduate students who completed a first semester physics course and received a grade of B or better participated in this study. The treatment…

This study investigated several aspects of a teaching experiment which focused on five seventh grade students' performance on nonroutine number theory problem-solving with a close look at the role of heuristics, concrete models, and the relationships between these variables. In the experiment, students were given a series of lessons on number…