This introductory article defines and delimits expert systems. The discussion covers the concepts of artificial intelligence, the components of an expert system, and the significance of expert systems when compared to more traditional decision making tools. (CLB)

One solution to the problem of getting expert knowledge into expert systems would be to endow the systems with powerful learning procedures that could discover appropriate behaviors by observing an expert in action. A promising source of such learning procedures can be found in recent work on connectionist networks, which are massively parallel…

Soar, an architecture for problem solving and learning based on heuristic search and chunking, has been applied to a variety of tasks during the development of the Soar project, the goal of which is to build a system capable of general intelligent behavior. The hypothesis being tested in this aspect of Soar research is that chunking, a simple…

This paper reviews the research leading from the GUIDON rule-based tutoring system, including the reconfiguration of MYCIN into NEOMYCIN and NEOMYCIN's generalization into the heuristic classification shell, HERACLES. The presentation is organized chronologically around pictures and dialogues that represent turning points and crystallize the basic…

Outlines an explicit research agenda to address the development of expert systems for reference services. The discussion specifically addresses system testing, describes what has been done, evaluates existing systems, identifies work in progress, and raises seven critical questions in this area. (58 references) (Author/CLB)

Introduces the concept of cover coefficient to indexing theory and discusses a way of computing term discrimination values by using the cover coefficient concept, index-term selection, and weight modification. This method is compared to an approach that uses similarity coefficients. (Author/EM)

This manual describes Version 4 of Soar, an architecture for problem solving and learning based on heuristic search and chunking. Version 4 is available as of January 1986 in Common Lisp, Franz-Lisp, Interlisp, and Zeta-Lisp. An introduction to the Soar system is presented, and information is provided about the following system aspects: (1) data…

This report describes the application of a shell expert system from the medical diagnostic system, Neomycin, to Caster, a diagnostic system for malfunctions in industrial sandcasting. This system was developed to test the hypothesis that starting with a well-developed classification procedure and a relational language for stating the…

Discusses possibility of using expert systems to develop new model in cataloging theory made necessary by technological progress, rising user expectations, and economic pressures. A data structure for bibliographic information required by Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, (AACR2) is suggested, and possible heuristics for interpreting…

This paper describes the MAIS and presents the BASIC programming code for the heuristic employed in this expert tutor management system, which is based on the findings of investigations of the direct connections among such learning environment factors as individual differences, cognitive learning theory, instructional technology, subject matter…

Arguing that an explicit representation of the problem-solving method of an expert system shell as abstract control knowledge provides a powerful foundation for learning, this paper describes the abstract control knowledge of the Heracles expert system shell for heuristic classification problems, and describes how the Odysseus apprenticeship…

Discusses the special information needs of the building industry, attributes of existing expert systems that support building design and construction, and current research to further develop the application of expert systems to this area. An annotated listing of related expert system developments is appended. (49 references) (CLB)

This paper defines the next generation of intelligent computer-assisted instructional systems (ICAI) by depicting the elaborations and extensions offered by educational research and theory perspectives to enhance the ICAI environment. The first section describes conventional ICAI systems, which use expert systems methods and have three modules: a…

Describes a study which investigated the general patterns and level of applicability of Anglo American Cataloging Rules (AACR2). It is suggested that designers and revisers of AACR2 should reduce the number of rules of very limited applicability levels and enhance the rule contents for application domains to expand the usefulness of AACR2. (SD)

Explores what an intelligent information retrieval system involves and why expert system techniques might interest system designers. Expert systems research is reviewed with emphasis on components, architecture, and computer interaction, and it is concluded that information retrieval is not an ideal problem domain for expert system application at…