Scientific Discovery Processes in Humans and Computers


Book Description

Wagman offers a critical analysis of current theory and research in the psychological and computational sciences, directed toward the elucidation of scientific discovery processes and structures. It discusses human scientific discovery processes, analyzes computer scientific discovery processes, and makes a comparative evaluation of the two. This work examines the scientific reasoning of the discoverers of the inhibition mechanism of gene control; scientific discovery heuristics used at different developmental levels; artificial intelligence and mathematical discovery; the ECHO system; the evolution of artificial intelligence discovery systems; the PAULI system; and the KEKADA system. It concludes with an examination of the extent to which computational discovery systems can emulate a set of 10 types of scientific problems.




Scientific Discovery


Book Description

Scientific discovery is often regarded as romantic and creative--and hence unanalyzable--whereas the everyday process of verifying discoveries is sober and more suited to analysis. Yet this fascinating exploration of how scientific work proceeds argues that however sudden the moment of discovery may seem, the discovery process can be described and modeled. Using the methods and concepts of contemporary information-processing psychology (or cognitive science) the authors develop a series of artificial-intelligence programs that can simulate the human thought processes used to discover scientific laws. The programs--BACON, DALTON, GLAUBER, and STAHL--are all largely data-driven, that is, when presented with series of chemical or physical measurements they search for uniformities and linking elements, generating and checking hypotheses and creating new concepts as they go along. Scientific Discovery examines the nature of scientific research and reviews the arguments for and against a normative theory of discovery; describes the evolution of the BACON programs, which discover quantitative empirical laws and invent new concepts; presents programs that discover laws in qualitative and quantitative data; and ties the results together, suggesting how a combined and extended program might find research problems, invent new instruments, and invent appropriate problem representations. Numerous prominent historical examples of discoveries from physics and chemistry are used as tests for the programs and anchor the discussion concretely in the history of science.




Problem-Solving Processes in Humans and Computers


Book Description

Wagman gives a broad, structured, and detailed account of advancing intellectual developments in both psychological and computational theories of the nature of problem- solving. Known for originating the PLATO computer-based Dilemma Counseling System, psychologist Wagman is the author of 17 books, including Scientific Discovery Processes in Humans and Computers (Praeger, 2000). In this book, Professor Emeritus Morton Wagman gives a broad, structured, and detailed account of advancing intellectual developments in both psychological and computational theories of the nature of problem solving. Known for originating the PLATO computer-based Dilemma Counseling System, psychologist Wagman is the author of 17 books, including Scientific Discovery Processes in Humans and Computers, (Praeger, 2000) Of special interest to readers will be Wagman's conclusion that artificial intelligence problem-solving systems are deepening and broadening theories of human problem solving from scientific to everyday approaches. Scholars and professionals in psychology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science will consider this a volume a valuable addition to their collections.




The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning brings together the contributions of many of the leading researchers in thinking and reasoning to create the most comprehensive overview of research on thinking and reasoning that has ever been available.




The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning


Book Description

The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning is the first comprehensive and authoritative handbook covering all the core topics of the field of thinking and reasoning. Written by the foremost experts from cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience, individual chapters summarize basic concepts and findings for a major topic, sketch its history, and give a sense of the directions in which research is currently heading. The volume also includes work related to developmental, social and clinical psychology, philosophy, economics, artificial intelligence, linguistics, education, law, and medicine. Scholars and students in all these fields and others will find this to be a valuable collection.




Reproducibility and Replicability in Science


Book Description

One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it. When a scientific effort fails to independently confirm the computations or results of a previous study, some fear that it may be a symptom of a lack of rigor in science, while others argue that such an observed inconsistency can be an important precursor to new discovery. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. As these concerns came to light, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study to assess the extent of issues related to reproducibility and replicability and to offer recommendations for improving rigor and transparency in scientific research. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science defines reproducibility and replicability and examines the factors that may lead to non-reproducibility and non-replicability in research. Unlike the typical expectation of reproducibility between two computations, expectations about replicability are more nuanced, and in some cases a lack of replicability can aid the process of scientific discovery. This report provides recommendations to researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders on steps they can take to improve reproducibility and replicability in science.




The Fourth Paradigm


Book Description

Foreword. A transformed scientific method. Earth and environment. Health and wellbeing. Scientific infrastructure. Scholarly communication.




Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction


Book Description

Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction is a comprehensive guide to performing research and is essential reading for both quantitative and qualitative methods. Since the first edition was published in 2009, the book has been adopted for use at leading universities around the world, including Harvard University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Washington, the University of Toronto, HiOA (Norway), KTH (Sweden), Tel Aviv University (Israel), and many others. Chapters cover a broad range of topics relevant to the collection and analysis of HCI data, going beyond experimental design and surveys, to cover ethnography, diaries, physiological measurements, case studies, crowdsourcing, and other essential elements in the well-informed HCI researcher's toolkit. Continual technological evolution has led to an explosion of new techniques and a need for this updated 2nd edition, to reflect the most recent research in the field and newer trends in research methodology. This Research Methods in HCI revision contains updates throughout, including more detail on statistical tests, coding qualitative data, and data collection via mobile devices and sensors. Other new material covers performing research with children, older adults, and people with cognitive impairments. - Comprehensive and updated guide to the latest research methodologies and approaches, and now available in EPUB3 format (choose any of the ePub or Mobi formats after purchase of the eBook) - Expanded discussions of online datasets, crowdsourcing, statistical tests, coding qualitative data, laws and regulations relating to the use of human participants, and data collection via mobile devices and sensors - New material on performing research with children, older adults, and people with cognitive impairments, two new case studies from Google and Yahoo!, and techniques for expanding the influence of your research to reach non-researcher audiences, including software developers and policymakers




Discovery Science


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Discovery Science, DS'98, held in Fukuoka, Japan, in December 1998. The volume presents 28 revised full papers selected from a total of 76 submissions. Also included are five invited contributions and 34 selected poster presentations. The ultimate goal of DS'98 and this volume is to establish discovery science as a new field of research and development. The papers presented relate discovery science to areas as formal logic, knowledge processing, machine learning, automated deduction, searching, neural networks, database management, information retrieval, intelligent network agents, visualization, knowledge discovery, data mining, information extraction, etc.




Scientific Discovery


Book Description

Kantorovich analyzes the notion of discovery. He views the process as inference and questions whether there is logic or method to discovery. He provides an alternative perspective on scientific discovery that explains the difficulties in finding a satisfactory method of discovery. Within the framework of evolutionary epistemology, discovery is treated as a phenomenon in its own right having psychological and social dimensions. Science is viewed as a continuation of the evolutionary process whereby creative discovery plays a role similar to blind mutation in biological evolution. From this perspective, serendipity and tinkering are key notions in understanding the creative process.