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. 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.
Teaching machines for perceptual-motor skills, Brian R Gaines, In D. Unwin & J. Leedham (Eds.), Aspects of Educational Technology, 337-358, London: Methuen, 1967. PDF.
Teaching machines have been developed for training and testing those skills involved in perceptual-motor tasks such as driving, piloting and tracking. These machines monitor the operator's performance and vary the parameters of his task accordingly. so as to maintain its difficulty at an optimal level as his learning progresses. It has been demonstrated that this is a viable technique for training and testing such skills, and the behaviour of this type of teaching machine is shown together with some results in its application. Research on automated teaching has concentrated on cognitive and perceptual skills leaving perceptual-motor skills largely neglected. Motor skills are not verbalized and hence the introspective analysis which is essential to the teaching of cognitive skills is not available, and training is largely by example or through partial tasks. However, the lack of verbalization affects the approach of the designer rather than the problems he faces, and it is shown that teaching machines for motor skills are essentially similar to those for cognitive skills. It is suggested that these machines will be of use in testing spatial and motor abilities, industrial training and rehabilitation and the evaluation of motor disability, together with driver and pilot training.
Automated Feedback Trainers for Perceptual-Motor Skills: Final Report to MoD, Brian R Gaines, Cambridge: Department Experimental Psychology, 1967. PDF.
An investigation to be carried out into the effect of varying the parameters of the display variables and the transfer function of the control system on human operator learning rates in tracking tasks. In particular to investigate the effect of varying the parameters and transfer-function automatically, so that the subject's mean tracking error tends to be constant.
The control of human learning, Brian R Gaines, Digest of IEEE International Convention. New York: IEEE., 1968. PDF.
This paper introduces the control problem involved in the regulation of human learning through training, suggests a suitable oontroller, or automated feedback trainer. for solving this problem automatically, and summarizes the results of some experiments with such trainers in which the interaction of verbal instruotion and training techniques was investigated for both human operators and computer-simulated learning machines.
Training the human adaptive controller, Brian R Gaines, Proceedings Institution Electrical Engineers 115(8), 1183-1189, 1968. 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.
Adaptively controlled instruction for a tracking skill, Brian R Gaines, In Programmed Learning Research, Sciences de Comportement, Vol. 8, 321-336, Paris: Dunod, 1969. PDF.
The studies outlined in this paper have been concerned with the possibility of fonnalizing the synthesis procedures utilized in training and performing them automatically with an automated feedback trainer. The first section lays the foundations for the study by analysing adaptive behaviour and demonstrating that training is itself a control problem. The complexity and irreversibility of the human adaptive controller, however, makes a complete identification of its behavioural dynamics inherently impossible. Equally the structure of the human controller is not only unknown but unknowable, and recourse must be made to other information in the design of an optimum training system. This infonnation comes from an analysis of the basic epistemological problem of attempting to control an environment whilst at the same time learning about it in order to improve the control policy.
Linear and nonlinear models of the human controller, Brian R Gaines, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 1, 333-360, 1969. 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.
[THESIS] The Human Adaptive Controller, Brian R Gaines, University of Cambridge, 1971. PDF.
The seope of this study is human learning behaviour, particularly in perceptual-motor skills, and the variables which influence it, including the nature of the environment in which learning takes place and the effect of verbal instructions. The study tamges from a general theory of adaptive behaviour based on the algebraic theory of semigroups, to specific experiments on the optimum control of learning beahviour in a perceptual=motor skill, and includes comparative studies of human and machine learning.
The learning of perceptual-motor skills by men and machines and its relationship to training, Brian R Gaines, Instructional Science 1, 263-312, 1972. PDF.
As part of a program of research on-the feasibility and utility of automated training devices, "teaching machines," for perceptual-motor skills, a comparative study has been made of human operators and computer-simulated learning-machines learning a high order tracking task under a variety of conditions. One outcome of this study has been to suggest, through the similarity of learning phenomena shown by men and machines, that there are important characteristics of learning which may be divorced from the particular physical realisation of a learning device, and hence are entirely conditioned by the learning environment. This has practical implications for training and for the evaluation of training devices, since a general theory of learning phenomena may be developed and standard learning artifacts may be used in the optimization of training techniques. This paper analyses training as a control problem in the state-space of the adaption-automaton of the trainee, and develops a strategy for training based upon the epistemological problems of the trainee. A specific feedback training controller for a class of tracking skills is then outlined and its behaviour investigated theoretically and experimentally. Finally, a major experiment involving the training of both humans and learning machines under a variety of conditions is described and analysed.
[THESIS] On Becoming a Personal Scientist: Interactive Computer Elicitation of Personal Models of the World, Mildred L G Shaw, Brunel University, 1978. PDF.
Personal construct psychology was developed by George Kelly in the early fifties to explain how similar events could produce different behaviour in different people. Central to his theory was a view of man as a personal scientist forming theories about the world, testing and revising them against personal experience, and acting on the basis of them. He devised the repertory grid technique to elicit the unique dimensions along which each individual classifies his world. Using the basic philosophy of personal construct theory and the repertory grid, the author of this book has developed novel computer techniques which interact with the individual's ideas to produce, objectively and explicitly, a model of his view of the world and his attitudes towards it.
The author describes these techniques and discusses how they help the individual to explore his own state of mind and attitudes towards a particular topic, as well as allowing comparisons between his own view of the world and those of other people. These psychological tools have been applied in a wide variety of situations - in industrial training, quality control , management development, self-organized learning, self-counselling and psychotherapy - and examples are given of actual projects that have been carried out. In each case, these highly innovative tools are used to shed new light on potentially difficult problems. The chapters describing specific programs give sufficient information, in the form of algorithms, flowcharts and computer runs, to enable the reader to develop programs for his own use to meet his particular problem.
This book provides more than just new techniques for the analysis of repertory grid data: it represents an extension of the concepts of personal construct psychology to whole new areas of great practical importance. It will be welcomed not only by those already concerned with personal construct theory, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, but also by the wide range of people for whom it provides new and powerful tools, in management training and personnel, cybernetics and systems research, counselling, youth and social work, and education, as well as by computer hobbyists.
Interactive computer programs for eliciting personal models of the world, Mildred L G Shaw, In F. Fransella (Ed.), Personal Construct Psychology, 1977, 59-68, London: Academic Press, 1978. PDF.
The Centre for the Study of Human Learning is interested in encouraging self-organisation in learning by helping people to investigate, expand and rebuild models for construing which will enable them to be more successful learners and users of experience. This paper describes how conversational methods are used which are content free, and which lend themselves superbly well to the realtime data processing of a computer. The application of these model building facilities has been in areas such as learning skills; psychotherapy and 'becoming'; management selection and development; industrial inspection and quality control; art and architecture; the maintenance of electronic equipment; career guidance and the training of counsellors; and in the education of both children and teachers.
FOCUS on education--an interactive computer system for the development and analysis of repertory grids, Mildred L G Shaw & Laurie F Thomas, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 10(2), 139-173, 1978. PDF.
Most teachers and tutors would agree that they achieve their best results when they "start from where the learner is". However, the techniques offered by psychology to help the teacher such as attitude scales, personality tests and questionnaires are less than satisfactory. The Kelly repertory grid is a new tool recently being used more extensively in education to raise the learner's awareness of the learning process, but many users have found the analysis of the grid difficult and unhelpful, and the structure too rigid. This paper describes two BASIC computer programs to elicit and analyse grids easily and clearly. FOCUS uses a two-way cluster analytic method to re-order the constructs and the elements to highlight similarities and differences in the grid, and displays the focused results together with tree diagrams of the similarities in elements and constructs. PEGASUS is an interactive program which conversationally elicits a grid, processes and offers real-time feedback commentary on the results.
Conversational heuristics for eliciting shared understanding, Mildred L G Shaw, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 11, 621-634, 1979. PDF.
A conversational method is necessary for experimenter and subject to collaborate in the exploration of the world of human beings. Individuals cannot be treated as objects, or be instructed how to take part in an experiment, without the recognition of the autonomy of each person and the invitation to participate jointly in co-operative exploration of the nature of man. An individual can be seen as a personal scientist who forms theories about the world and tests these theories against his personal experience of reality, adapting his theories for a more effective anticipation of events and hence a more competent interaction with his environment. A suite of computer programs (PEGASUS, FOCUS, MINUS, CORE, ARGUS and SOCIOGRIDS) has been developed, each one acting as a cybernetic tool to enhance man's capabilities to understand both himself and his relationships with other perspectives of the world. PEGASUS is described, including PEGASUS-BANK which can be used to explore the relationship of an individual with another individual (or group). The CORE program can be used to chart change in a person over time, and to find the level of understanding and agreement between two people. Shared understanding within small groups can be investigated using the SOCIOGRIDS program which produces a mapping of the intra-group relationships, and the subject content which shows the extent of agreement in the group. A study involving the exchange of subjective standards in human judgement is briefly described, and an analogy drawn to the understanding of different perspectives in the treatment of a medical or clinical patient.
Personal learning through the computer, Mildred L G Shaw, Computers & Education, 3(4), 267-272, 1979. PDF.
This paper discusses the role of the computer as an aid towards human learning. A set of computer programs has been developed which interact with the cognitive modelling processes of the participant, helping him to increases his awareness of himself and his understanding of the world. Conversational heuristics are employed to embody the philosophy of the personal scientist who classifies, categorises and builds theories about his world, testing these against his personal experience, reviewing and revising his theories in order to anticipate events and act effectively. PEGASUS is an interactive program which acts as a content-free psychological reflector by applying the real-time data processing of the computer to the individual's system of constructs as it is elicited. Continuous feedback commentary is provided in such a way as to act as a participant in a conversation which makes explicit to the user implicit similarities and cross-references in his dimensions of thinking. In this way he is encouraged to build and rebuild a model of any topic in his own terms. This is the basis of learning. Where an area of public knowledge is involved, there is also the facility to compare his model with that of an expert in the field; or to investigate his standing in a group of people. These techniques have successfully been used in a number of educational and industrial studies. Most of what is called computer assisted learning is indistinguishable from instruction. If the philosophy of the personal scientist is amalgamated with the role of the computer as a tool used by a craftsman to enhance his skill rather than that of a machine which takes from man that essentially human aspect of the process, the learner is offered a facility which allows him to attempt new ventures with a firm basis and support in the system.
On Becoming a Personal Scientist: Interactive Computer Elicitation of Personal Models of the World, Mildred L G Shaw, London: Academic Press, 1980. PDF.
Personal construct psychology was developed by George Kelly in the early fifties to explain how similar events could produce different behaviour in different people. Central to his theory was a view of man as a personal scientist forming theories about the world, testing and revising them against personal experience, and acting on the basis of them. He devised the repertory grid technique to elicit the unique dimensions along which each individual classifies his world. Using the basic philosophy of personal construct theory and the repertory grid, the author of this book has developed novel computer techniques which interact with the individual's ideas to produce, objectively and explicitly, a model of his view of the world and his attitudes towards it.
The author describes these techniques and discusses how they help the individual to explore his own state of mind and attitudes towards a particular topic, as well as allowing comparisons between his own view of the world and those of other people. These psychological tools have been applied in a wide variety of situations - in industrial training, quality control , management development, self-organized learning, self-counselling and psychotherapy - and examples are given of actual projects that have been carried out. In each case, these highly innovative tools are used to shed new light on potentially difficult problems. The chapters describing specific programs give sufficient information, in the form of algorithms, flowcharts and computer runs, to enable the reader to develop programs for his own use to meet his particular problem.
This book provides more than just new techniques for the analysis of repertory grid data: it represents an extension of the concepts of personal construct psychology to whole new areas of great practical importance. It will be welcomed not only by those already concerned with personal construct theory, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, but also by the wide range of people for whom it provides new and powerful tools, in management training and personnel, cybernetics and systems research, counselling, youth and social work, and education, as well as by computer hobbyists.
New directions in the analysis and interactive elicitation of personal construct systems, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 13(1), 281-116, 1980. PDF.
The computer elicitation and analysis of personal construct systems has become a technique of great interest and wide application in recent years. This paper takes the current state of the art as a starting point and explores further developments that are natural extensions of it. The overall objective of the work described is to develop man-computer symbiotic systems in which the computer is a truly dialectical partner to the person in forming theories and making decisions. A logical model of constructs as predicates applying to elements is used to develop a logical analysis of construct structures and this is contrasted with various distance-based clustering techniques. A grid analysis program called ENTAIL is described based on these techniques which derives a network of entailments from a grid. This is compared and contrasted with various programs for repertory grid analysis such as INGRID, FOCUS and Q-Analysis. Entailment is discussed in relation to Kelly's superordination hierarchy over constructs and preference relations over elements. The entailment analysis is extended to rating-scale data using a fuzzy semantic model. The significance of Kelly's notion of the opposite to a construct as opposed to its negation is discussed and related to other epistemological models and the role of relevance. Finally, the interactive construct elicitation program PEGASUS is considered in terms of the psychological and philosophical importance of the dialectical processes of grid elicitation and analysis, and recommendations are made about its generalization and extension based on the logical foundations described. Links are established between the work on repertory grids and that on relational data bases and expert systems.
Personal construct psychology in education and learning, Maureen L Pope & Mildred L G Shaw, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 14(2), 223-232, 1981. PDF.
Recently educational technology has undergone a change of emphasis in the methods and means of teaching: from mass instruction through individualized instruction to group learning. This re-orientation parallels developments within education itself of the three stages of dependent, independent and interdependent learning. This paper discusses the contribution which can be made to this development by personal construct psychology, and in particular the practical role in it of the PEGASUS and SOCIOGRIDS programs for construct elicitation and analysis.
[BOOK] Recent Advances in Personal Construct Technology, Mildred L G Shaw (Ed), International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 14(2), 223-232, 1981. PDF.
The theme of this book is applications of George Kelly's personal construct theory and the technologies on which these may be based, particularly the interactive computer. There has been a tremendous growth of interest in these topics during the past five years and this book covers a wide range of techniques for use by management consultants, psychologists and computer scientists. Although work in the area of personal construct theory and the associated repertory grid technique originated in clinical psychology it has diversified into many other areas. In particular, this technique has been used to extract subjective data in situations where before it had not been possible: in industrial training, quality control, management development, self-organized learning and self-counselling. Recently, personal construct techniques have been recognized as a basis for building expert systems on a computer.
[BOOK] Think Again, Mildred L G Shaw & Cliff McKnight, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1981. PDF.
This book is about a very powerful technique—a tool to investigate human thinking-developed by the clinical psychologist George Kelly a quarter of a century ago. In recent years it has also been applied extensively in industrial management and education. However, the tool itself—the grid—is very simple to elicit and can readily be applied to everyday problems of personal decision-making by ordinary people. We demonstrate this through a series of real-life case histories which introduce important applications of the grid.
Eliciting entailment, Mildred L G Shaw & Brian R Gaines, In R. Trappl, L. Ricciardi & G. Pask (Eds.), Progress in Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vol. IX, 425-435, Washington: Hemisphere, 1982. PDF.
Interactive construct elicitetion systems may be seen on the one hand as tools for self-realization and construct development and on the other as dialectic database systems in which the entire data structure is built up through a process of question, answer and discussion. Current computer-based construct elicitation programs use distance-based measures to feed back construct similarities and to perform cluster analysis, This paper describes new techniques for inferring the entailment structure between constructs. It gives an example of the application of this technique embodied in the computer program ENTAIL. It throws new light upon the role of the oppposite, rather than the negation. in construct theory, logic and dialectics. It is one in a series of papers on fuzzy set semantics for personal constructs.
PLANET: some experience in creating an integrated system for repertory grid applications on a microcomputer, Mildred L G Shaw, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 17(3), 345-360, 1982. PDF.
Direct interaction between patients and computers has now been shown to be successful and acceptable in an experimental environment. Automated psychological testing has also been widely validated against experts administering the same test. However, there are problems in making available what are essentially computer-based research tools to a diverse community of users, geographically widespread, with a range of experience of computer systems, test procedures, analytic techniques and information presenta-tion. This paper is concerned with the experience of transforming a set of repertory grid programs developed for research purposes on a large mainframe computer into an integrated system on a low-cost microcomputer. This had to be done in such a way that all aspects of the operation and many aspects of the application of the system would be self-evident to users issued with only a program disk and simple manual. It was also a requirement of some potential users that they be able to re-program the interactive dialogue with their clients to reflect the particular purpose for which a grid was being elicited: for example, personnel selection, career guidance or industrial training. Some users also wished to translate the dialogue from English into their native language. The paper also describes the techniques adopted to allow this without requiring programming knowledge on the part of the users and without undermining the integrity of the program suite.
Tracking the creativity cycle with a microcomputer, Mildred L G Shaw & Brian R Gaines, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 17(1), 75-85, 1982. PDF.
One of the major attractions of introducing electronic technology in education has been that of providing individualized instruction. However, it has proved very difficult to obtain a representation of each student's inferred knowledge state on which to base such individualization. In this paper we present Kelly's personal construct psychology as a framework for the analysis of the educational process and educational system, and particularly for the practical determination of relevant features of the knowledge state. His notions of constructive alternativism, and the creativity cycle in particular, are both of major theoretical significance and can also be studied through interactive microcomputer programs eliciting the construct systems of students and teachers.
Proceedings of the North American Personal Construct Network Second Biennial Conference, Mildred L G Shaw & Brian R Gaines (Eds.), PDF.
Proceedings of the North American Personal Construct Network Second Biennial Conference held at Banff, Alberta in June 1986.
Steps toward knowledge science, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw, Proceedings of NAPCN Second Biennial Conference, pp.73-82, 1986. 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.
KITTEN: Knowledge initiation and transfer tools for experts and novices, Mildred L G Shaw & Brian R Gaines, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 27(3), 251-280, 1987. PDF.
This paper gives a state-of-the-art report on the use of techniques based on personal construct psychology to automate knowledge engineering for expert systems. It presents the concept of knowledge support systems as interactive knowledge engineering tools, states the design criteria for such systems, and outlines the structure and key components of the KITTEN implementation. KITTEN includes tools for interactive repertory grid elicitation and entailment analysis that have been widely used for rapid prototyping of industrial expert systems. It also includes tools for text analysis, behavioral analysis and schema analysis, that offer complementary and alternative approaches to knowledge acquisition. The KITTEN implementation integrates these tools around a common database with utilities designed to give multiple perspectives on the knowledge base.
An interactive knowledge-based system for group problem solving, Mildred L G Shaw, IEEE Transactions Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 18(4), 610-617, 1988. PDF.
A distributed system is described for human-computer interaction based on a network of computers. It aids group problem solving by enabling the participants to share in a construct elicitation process based on repertory grid techniques. The application of these techniques in education, management, and expert-system development is discussed
A conceptual framework for person-computer interaction in distributed systems, Brian R Gaines, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, 18(4), 532-541, 1988. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.) 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. 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. 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. 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.
Human rationality challenges universal logic, Brian R Gaines. Logica Universalis, 4, 163-205, 2010. PDF.
Tarski's conceptual analysis of the notion of logical consequence 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, Gödel, Gentzen 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 analysis, and Béziau's further generalization of it in 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 research in a range of disciplines providing theoretical and empirical studies of human reasoning, discusses the value of adopting a universal logic perspective, answers the questions posed in the call for this special issue, and suggests some specific research challenges.
Computer aided constructivism, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw. P. Caputi, L. L. Viney, B. M. Walker & N. Crittenden (Eds.), Constructivist Methods, 183-222, New York: Wiley, 2012. 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.
Humans as scientists: scientists as humans, Brian R Gaines. Joumal Constructivist Psychology, 26(3), 210-217, 2013. PDF.
This article discusses how constructivist psychology might contribute to studies of the history and philosophy of science. It is suggested that this would be a fruitful topic for graduate research, and a brief analysis is provided of what would be required to model the construct systems involved in the Priestley-Lavoisier controversy over the roles of phlogiston and oxygen in calcification. It is also suggested the rich literature and conceptual frameworks of science studies can contribute significant enhancements of constructivist psychology.
CPCS 12-May-2013