The reports listed below can generally be accessed in 3 different formats:-
The PDF format is used to allow ease of reuse of figures and text, quoted with citation.
Publication citations are given where a version of the report has been published. Often material has been edited in publication and the cited version differs to some extent.
Discontinuities in tracking strategies, Brian R Gaines, Presentation to Psychological Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 16th November, 1965. HTML, PDF.
Twenty years ago Craik (1947) suggested that the output of the human operator performing a perceptual-motor control task consists of a sequence of discrete, "ballistic" movements. In a tracking task this discreteness would be apparent even thought the input to be tracked were smooth and continuous. After Craik there was a shift towards skills where the possible responses are necessarily discrete (as in key-pressing), and the nature and causes of the discrete output in a continuous tracking have been little investigated. The aim of the experiments reported here is to demonstrate that there are at least two distinct causes of discontinuity in the operator output, the first dependent on the availability of feedback information and the second upon the nature of the effector dynamics. In simple tracking tasks these are confounded, but they may be separated by appropriate choice of controlled system and control dynamics.
Linear and nonlinear models of the human controller, Brian R Gaines, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 1, 333-360, 1969. HTML, PDF.
This paper presents a review of recent studies of the human controller both in psychology and in control engineering. Theoretical and technological problems in the study of skilled behaviour are first discussed, and the desirable constraints upon any "model" are outlined. The foundations of linear continuous modelling of the human controller and experimental data on the validity and utility of linear models are then reviewed. The evidence for nonlinear and discontinuous behaviour in the human controller is then outlined, and studies of non-linear models based on modern optimal and sampled-data control theory are then presented.
Steps toward knowledge science, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw, Proceedings of NAPCN Second Biennial Conference, pp.73-82, 1986. HTML, PDF.
There is growing convergence between psychology, systems theory and computer science towards what might be called knowledge science. Personal construct psychology is able to provide foundations for cognitive science that subsume previous information processing models and extend them to realms of human knowledge processes, including social interaction, creative thinking, emotion and personality. Systems theory is now at a stage where it can contribute a framework for these ideas that expresses them without unreasonable distortion. For psychology this opens up the possibility of an integrative theory encompassing all aspects of human life and contributing formal foundations to clinical, educational, social and applied psychology. For fifth and sixth generation computing systems this opens up the possibility of true human-computer symbiosis in which natural and artificial knowledge processes are fully integrated.
A conceptual framework for person-computer interaction in distributed systems, Brian R Gaines, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, 18(4), 532-541, 1988. HTML, PDF.
This paper presents a conceptual framework for complex systems of computers and people. Distinctions between technology and people, and between computers and non-programmed technology, are analyzed. This analysis is used to show how various forms of analogy and abstraction may be used to derive design principles for person-computer interaction. The analysis is extended to include relations between system structure and behavior, and used to develop a hierarchical model of the protocols in person-computer systems.
Positive feedback processes underlying the formation of expertise, Brian R Gaines, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, SMC-18(6), 1016-1020, 1988. HTML, PDF.
Experts may be modeled as managing the inductive dynamics of knowledge acquisition in the knowledge processes of society. Who becomes an expert may be modeled as a random process under the influence of strong positive feedback loops in the social mechanisms giving access to knowledge. These models have implications for the design of expert systems.
Social and cognitive processes in knowledge acquisition, Brian R Gaines, Knowledge Acquisition 1(1), 251-280, March, 1989. HTML, PDF.
A model of knowledge-acquisition for knowledge-based systems is developed which presents the acquisition activity as playing an essential and continuous role in skilled performance, rather than as a separate and separable activity. The practical implications of this model for systems design are developed, and recommendations made targeted on monitoring the quality of advice from expert systems and achieving closer integration between the application of these systems and the formation of expertise. The model is developed in depth to generate taxonomies of human knowledge processes and use these to analyze the roles of a wide variety of computer-based systems in supporting these processes. The model is used to highlight strengths and weaknesses in the current state of the art in knowledge representation. This paper provides an overall framework for the variety of knowledge acquisition problems, techniques and technologies discussed in the literature.
Comparing conceptual structures: consensus, conflict, correspondence and contrast, Mildred L G Shaw and Brian R Gaines, Knowledge Acquisition 1(4), 341-363, 1989. HTML, PDF.
One problem of eliciting knowledge from several experts is that experts may share only parts of their terminologies and conceptual systems. Experts may use the same term for different concepts, use different terms for the same concept, use the same term for the same concept, or use different terms and have different concepts. Moreover, clients who use an expert system have even less likelihood of sharing terms and concepts with the experts who produced it. This paper outlines a methodology for eliciting and recognizing such individual differences. It can be used to focus discussion between experts on those differences between them which require resolution, enabling them to classify them in terms of differing terminologies, levels of abstraction, disagreements, and so on. The methodology promotes the full exploration of the conceptual framework of a domain of expertise by encouraging experts to operate in a "brain-storming" mode as a group, using differing viewpoints to develop a rich framework. It reduces social pressures forcing an invalid consensus by providing objective analysis of separately elicited conceptual systems.
Modeling practical reasoning, Brian R Gaines, International Journal of Intelligent Systems 8(1) 51-70, 1991. HTML, PDF.
Knowledge modeling perspectives on knowledge acquisition suggest that it is reasonable to analyze knowledge bases as collections of models. This paper focuses on those parts of the knowledge base that model the practical reasoning processes of human experts, and asks what properties those models might be expected to have. It surveys the general notion of a model and its connotations in information systems science. It analyzes the structure of practical reasoning as a control process with information flows involving essential uncertainty and adaptivity, where robustness is more significant than optimality. Systemic considerations suggest that models of the relevant knowledge will consist of a collection of isolated productions, many of which will be concerned with avoidance rather than goal achievement. The relations of such models to role limiting methods, generic tasks and deep knowledge are discussed. Finally, tthe implications of the knowledge modeling perspectives for developments in knowledge acquisition are discussed.
Between neuron, culture and logic: explicating the cognitive nexus, Brian R Gaines, ICO: Intelligence Artificielle et Sciences Cognitives au Québec, 3(2) 47-61, 1991. HTML, PDF.
The paradigm shift from behaviorism to cognitive science has wrought many changes in our methodologies, experimental techniques, and models of human activity. Not the least of these changes has been the legitimation of such hidden variables as mental processes. The cognitive science paradigm has been a swift river carrying us to new horizons but there are now a number of major counter-currents. The positivism of behaviorism is being replaced by the reductionism of neural networksÑhow do mental processes arise out of physical cellular activity? The ontogenetic bias of both behaviorism and cognitive science is being challenged by ethnomethodological perspectives in which the very notion of an individual is an experimental artifact -- how do mental processes arise out of the lifeworld? Meanwhile the promise of greater understanding of the knowledge level is being fulfilled, and operational models of human cognition and action are being generated -- how do mental processes relate to the logical structures of overt knowledge? This paper surveys these issues both theoretically and in terms of practical applications. It suggests that it is from the underlying tensions that the strength of the cognitive science paradigm arises, but to harness that strength requires much broader concepts of cognition and mental processes than are conventionally accepted.
Kelly's "Geometry of Psychological Space" and its significance for cognitive modeling, Mildred L G Shaw and Brian R Gaines, The New Psychologist, 23-31, October, 1992. HTML, PDF.
Personal construct psychology is a theory of individual and group psychological and social processes that takes a constructivist position in modeling human knowledge but bases this on a positivist scientific position that characterizes conceptual structures in axiomatic terms. It provides a fundamental framework for both theoretical and applied studies of knowledge acquisition and representation. This paper presents Kelly's original intuitions underlying personal construct psychology and links these to its foundational role in cognitive and computational knowledge representation.
The collective stance in modeling expertise in individuals and organizations, Brian R Gaines, (shortened version appeared in the International Journal of Expert Systems 7(1) 21-51, 1994.) HTML, PDF.
This paper is concerned with modeling the nature of expertise and its role in society in relation to research on expert systems and enterprise models. It argues for the adoption of a collective stance in which the human species is viewed as a single organism recursively partitioned in space and time into sub-organisms that are similar to the whole. These parts include societies, organizations, groups, individuals, roles, and neurological functions. Notions of expertise arise because the organism adapts as a whole through adaptation of its interacting parts. The phenomena of expertise correspond to those leading to distribution of tasks and functional differentiation of the parts. The mechanism is one of positive feedback from parts of the organism allocating resources for action to other parts on the basis of those latter parts past performance of similar activities. Distribution and differentiation follow if performance is rewarded, and low performers of tasks, being excluded by the feedback mechanism from opportunities for performance of those tasks, seek out alternative tasks where there is less competition. The knowledge-level phenomena of expertise, such as meaning and its representation in language and overt knowledge, arise as byproducts of the communication, coordination and modeling processes associated with the basic exchange-theoretic behavioral model. The model is linked to existing analyses of human action and knowledge in biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy, and is used to analyze the role of information technology in supporting activities in the lifeworld.
The emergence of knowledge through modeling and management processes in societies of adaptive agents, Brian R Gaines. Gaines, B.R. & Musen, M. (Eds) Proceedings of the Tenth Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop. pp.24-1-24-13. Banff, November, 1996. HTML, PDF.
A model is developed of the emergence of the knowledge level in a society of agents where agents model and manage other agents as resources, and manage the learning of other agents to develop such resources. It is argued that any persistent system that actively creates the conditions for its persistence is appropriately modeled in terms of the rational teleological models that Newell defines as characterizing the knowledge level. The need to distribute tasks in agent societies motivates such modeling, and it is shown that if there is a rich order relationship of difficulty on tasks that is reasonably independent of agents then it is efficient to model agents competencies in terms of their possessing knowledge. It is shown that a simple training strategy of keeping an agent's performance constant by allocating tasks of increasing difficulty as an agent adapts optimizes the rate of learning and linearizes the otherwise sigmoidal learning curves. It is suggested that this provides a basis for assigning a granularity to knowledge that enables learning processes to be managed simply and efficiently.
Personal construct psychology and the cognitive revolution, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw. CPCS-TR-May-03, 2003. HTML, PDF.
It is now nearly seventy years since George Kelly commenced writing what became his major two-volume work defining the theory and practice of personal construct psychology (PCP). In those years much has changed in psychology and in the scientific ethos. The book was completed in the initial stages of what became termed the cognitive revolution. If we are to fully appreciate PCP it is important to attempt to place it in the context of Kelly's life and times, and the developments in psychology that preceded and followed it. This article presents relevant aspects of his era, commenting on their significance for understanding PCP and the role that it played, or did not play, in various developments in psychology. In particular, the role that PCP and the repertory grid played in artificial intelligence research on knowledge acquisition for expert systems is discussed in terms of its significance for other aspects of PCP research.
Expertise and expert systems: emulating psychological processes, Mildred L G Shaw & Brian R Gaines. Fransella, F. (Ed.) The Essential Practitioner's Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology. Chichester, UK: Wiley, 87-94, 2005. HTML, PDF.
The role of personal construct psychology in computer research and applications concerned with the development of 'expert systems' and their beginnings in 'artificial intelligence' and 'cognitive science' are covered in this chapter. Research on expert systems led to the identification of the 'knowledge acquisition bottleneck,' that it was generally extremely difficult to make overt the presumed knowledge of human experts in order to program it for computers. The history and reasons for the adoption of repertory grid methodologies and tools to overcome the knowledge acquisition bottleneck are described. Then a more fundamental analysis is made of why expert systems to date have had only limited success, and the merits of a personal construct approach to emulating human expertise in greater depth than has been achieved with existing cognitive science models are presented. In conclusion, it is noted that the techniques developed to emulate human expertise are essentially ones for modeling and emulating any person's psychological processes, not just those of people valued by others as 'experts'. PCP-based expert systems methods and technology have wide relevance, for example, in clinical and educational research and applications.
Computer aided constructivism, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw. CPCS-TR-Nov-08, 2008. HTML, PDF.
Our overall objective is to provide a framework for understanding how to use computer capabilities in a principled fashion to support constructivist research studies. The methodological principles underlying such studies are discussed. Constructivist studies focus on meaning making processes; a logical model of meaning making is developed based on the principles of personal construct psychology. Its computer support is illustrated through tools for representing Kelly's construct networks and anticipation processes. Some issues of improving users' understanding of the results of analysis are discussed in terms of enhancing meaning making processes.
Human rationality: ten challenges for universal logic, Brian R Gaines. CPCS-TR-Sep-09, 2009. HTML, PDF.
Tarski's development of general axioms for a consequence operator is one of the pinnacles of the process of defining the metamathematical foundations of mathematics in the tradition of his predecessors Euclid, Frege, Russell and Hilbert, and his contemporaries Carnap, Gšdel and Turing. However, he also notes that in defining the concept of consequence "efforts were made to adhere to the common usage of the language of every day life." This paper addresses the issue of what relationship Tarski's axioms for what has come to be called universal logic have to reasoning in the everyday lives of ordinary people from the cognitive processes of children through to those of specialists in the empirical and deductive sciences. It surveys a selection of relevant literature providing theoretical and empirical perspectives, analyzes the implications for universal logic, answers the questions posed in the call for this special issue, and suggests some specific research challenges. It concludes, in the terminology of Kant and Carnap, that the precisification of the explicandum of the folk notion of 'consequence' by the metamathematical explicatum of 'logical consequence' captures enough of the 'real essence' to be useful in the human sciences and that research bridging between the two will provide a fruitful challenge to the logical sciences.
CPCS 10-Sep-2009