Key Arguments

• He describes their approach as 'called Cognitive Simulation (CS) because the technique generally employed is to collect protocols from human subjects, which are then analyzed to discover the heuristics these subjects employ.'
• A 'program is then written which incorporates similar rules of thumb.'
• The Logic Theorist (1957) 'using heuristically guided trial-and-error search, proved 38 out of 52 theorems from Principia Mathematica.'
• The General Problem Solver (GPS) later 'using more sophisticated means-ends analysis, solved the "cannibal and missionary" problem and other problems of similar complexity.'
• Newell and Simon, after comparing machine traces with human protocols, concluded that GPS provided 'a rather good first approximation to an information processing theory of certain kinds of thinking and problem-solving behavior.'

Source Quotes

Problem Solving Much of the early work in the general area of artificial intelligence, especially work on game playing and problem solving, was inspired and dominated by the work of Newell, Shaw, and Simon at the RAND Corporation and at Carnegie Institute of Technology. 7 Their approach is called Cognitive Simulation (CS) because the technique generally employed is to collect protocols from human subjects, which are then analyzed to discover the heuristics these subjects employ.8* A program is then written which incorporates similar rules of thumb. Again we find an early success: in 1957 Newell, Shaw, and Simon's Logic Theorist, using heuristically guided trial-and-error search, proved 38 out of 52 theorems from Principia Mathematica.

7 Their approach is called Cognitive Simulation (CS) because the technique generally employed is to collect protocols from human subjects, which are then analyzed to discover the heuristics these subjects employ.8* A program is then written which incorporates similar rules of thumb. Again we find an early success: in 1957 Newell, Shaw, and Simon's Logic Theorist, using heuristically guided trial-and-error search, proved 38 out of 52 theorems from Principia Mathematica. Two years later, another Newell, Shaw, and Simon program, the General Problem Solver (GPS), using more sophisticated means-ends analysis, solved the "cannibal and missionary" problem and other problems of similar complexity.9* In 1961, after comparing a machine trace (see Figure 2, p.

Again we find an early success: in 1957 Newell, Shaw, and Simon's Logic Theorist, using heuristically guided trial-and-error search, proved 38 out of 52 theorems from Principia Mathematica. Two years later, another Newell, Shaw, and Simon program, the General Problem Solver (GPS), using more sophisticated means-ends analysis, solved the "cannibal and missionary" problem and other problems of similar complexity.9* In 1961, after comparing a machine trace (see Figure 2, p. 95) with a protocol and finding that they matched to some extent, Newell and Simon concluded rather cautiously: The fragmentary evidence we have obtained to date encourages us to think that the General Problem Solver provides a rather good first approximation to an information processing theory of certain kinds of thinking and problem-solving behavior.

Two years later, another Newell, Shaw, and Simon program, the General Problem Solver (GPS), using more sophisticated means-ends analysis, solved the "cannibal and missionary" problem and other problems of similar complexity.9* In 1961, after comparing a machine trace (see Figure 2, p. 95) with a protocol and finding that they matched to some extent, Newell and Simon concluded rather cautiously: The fragmentary evidence we have obtained to date encourages us to think that the General Problem Solver provides a rather good first approximation to an information processing theory of certain kinds of thinking and problem-solving behavior. The processes of "thinking" can no longer be regarded as completely mysterious.10 Soon, however, Simon gave way to more enthusiastic claims: Subsequent work has tended to confirm [our] initial hunch, and to demonstrate that heuristics, or rules of thumb, form the integral core of human problem-solving processes.

Key Concepts

• Their approach is called Cognitive Simulation (CS) because the technique generally employed is to collect protocols from human subjects, which are then analyzed to discover the heuristics these subjects employ.
• A program is then written which incorporates similar rules of thumb.
• Logic Theorist, using heuristically guided trial-and-error search, proved 38 out of 52 theorems from Principia Mathematica.
• the General Problem Solver (GPS), using more sophisticated means-ends analysis, solved the "cannibal and missionary" problem and other problems of similar complexity.
• provides a rather good first approximation to an information processing theory of certain kinds of thinking and problem-solving behavior.

Context

In the Problem Solving subsection, Dreyfus summarizes the methodology and early achievements of Cognitive Simulation as background for his later critique of its limitations.