A pattern-recognition theory of search in expert problem solving

Understanding how look-ahead search and pattern recognition interact is one of the important research questions in the study of expert problem-solving. This paper examines the implications of the template theory (Gobet & Simon, 1996a), a recent theory of expert memory, on the theory of problem solving in chess. Templates are "chunks" (Chase & Simon, 1973) that have evolved into more complex data structures and that possess slots allowing values to be encoded rapidly. Templates may facilitate search in three ways: (a) by allowing information to be stored into LTM rapidly; (b) by allowing a search in the template space in addition to a search in the move space; and (c) by compensating loss in the "mind's eye" due to interference and decay. A computer model implementing the main ideas of the theory is presented, and simulations of its search behaviour are discussed. The template theory accounts for the slight skill difference in average depth of search found in chess players, as well as for other empirical data

Discrimination nets, production systems and semantic networks: Elements of a unified framework

A number of formalisms have been used in cognitive science to account for cognition in general and learning in particular. While this variety denotes a healthy state of theoretical development, it somewhat hampers communication between researchers championing different approaches and makes comparison between theories difficult. In addition, it has the consequence that researchers tend to study cognitive phenomena best suited to their favorite formalism. It is therefore desirable to propose frameworks which span traditional formalisms. In this paper, we pursue two goals: first, to show how three (symbolic) formalisms widely used in theorizing about and in simulating human cognition—discrimination nets, semantic networks and production systems—may be used in a single, conceptually unified framework; and second to show how this framework can be used to develop a comprehensive theory of learning. Within this theory, learning is construed as (a) developing perceptual and conceptual discrimination nets, (b) adding semantic links, and (c) creating productions. We start by giving a brief description of each of these formalisms; we then describe a theoretical framework that incorporates the three formalisms, and show how these may coexist. Throughout this description, examples from chess, a highly studied field of expertise and a classical object of study in cognitive science, will be provided. These examples will illustrate how the framework can be worked out into a more detailed cognitive theory. Finally, we draw some theoretical consequences of the framework proposed here

The Dynamics of the Organisation of Industry

The paper presents and formalises an approach to the evolution of the organisation of industry which starts from multi-activity firms, and which relates to economists like Young, Stigler, and Richardson. To capture the open-ended process of disintegration of industry, the paper operates with decomposable tasks and gives an account of the vertical and horizontal structure of production by means of weighted trees — in the graphtheoretical sense. Based on this addition to the analytical toolbox, the paper gives an account of the decomposition of industry as driven by the structural innovations and process innovations of firms that specialise and exchange in an open-ended evolutionary process.Vertical disintegration, horizontal disintegration, production trees, specialisation of production, specialisation of R&D, George B. Richardson

A Psychogenetic Algorithm for Behavioral Sequence Learning

This work presents an original algorithmic model of some essential features of psychogenetic theory, as was proposed by J.Piaget. Specifically, we modeled some elements of cognitive structure learning in children from 0 to 4 months of life. We are in fact convinced that the study of well-established cognitive models of human learning can suggest new, interesting approaches to problem so far not satisfactorily solved in the field of machine learning. Further, we discussed the possible parallels between our model and subsymbolic machine learning and neuroscience. The model was implemented and tested in some simple experimental settings, with reference to the task of learning sensorimotor sequences

Division of Labour and Social Coordination Modes : A simple simulation model

This paper presents a preliminary investigation of the relationship between the process of functional division of labour and the modes in which activities and plans are coordinated. We consider a very simple production process: a given heap of bank-notes has to be counted by a group of accountants. Because of limited individual capabilities and/or the possibilities of mistakes and external disturbances, the task has to be divided among several accountants and a hierarchical coordination problem arises. We can imagine several different ways of socially implementing coordination of devided tasks. 1) a central planner can compute the optimal architecture of the system; 2) a central planner can promote quantity adjustments by moving accountants from hierarchical levels where there exist idle resources to levels where resources are insufficient; 3) quasi-market mechanisms can use quantity or price signals for promoting decentralized adjustments. By means of a simple simulation model, based on Genetic Algorithms and Classifiers Systems, we can study the dynamic efficiency properties of each coordination mode and in particular their capability, speed and cost of adaptation to changing environmental situations (i.e. variations of the size of the task and/or variations of agents' capabilities). Such interesting issues as returns to scale, specialization and workers exploitation can be easily studied in the same model

The imperfect hiding : some introductory concepts and preliminary issues on modularity

In this work we present a critical assessment of some problems and open questions on the debated notion of modularity. Modularity is greatly in fashion nowadays, being often proposed as the new approach to complex artefact production that enables to combine fast innovation pace, enhanced product variety and reduced need for co-ordination. In line with recent critical assessments of the managerial literature on modularity, we sustain that modularity is only one among several arrangements to cope with the complexity inherent in most high-technology artefact production, and by no means the best one. We first discuss relations between modularity and the broader (and much older within economics) notion of division of labour. Then we sustain that a modular approach to labour division aimed at eliminating technological interdependencies between components or phases of a complex production process may have, as a by-product, the creation of other types of interdependencies which may subsequently result in inefficiencies of various types. Hence, the choice of a modular design strategy implies the resolution of various tradeoffs. Depending on how such tradeoffs are solved, different organisational arrangements may be created to cope with ‘residual’ interdependencies. Hence, there is no need to postulate a perfect isomorphism, as some recent literature has proposed, between modularity at the product level and modularity at the organisational level