SGER: Comparison and Explanation in Learning and Development

提案0628941“SGER：学习和发展中的比较和解释“PI：Kenneth D.西北大学中文摘要这个项目将调查比较和解释在儿童和成人概念转变中的作用。比较似乎在人类学习中起着重要作用：人们比较多种情况来帮助构建模型，比较模型与数据，看看它们解释得如何，并将模型相互比较，以确定哪些数据可以区分它们。一个关键的问题是决定何时接受，修改或放弃一个模型，基于其解释的成功和失败。这个问题将通过理论工作，计算机模拟和心理实验相结合的方式进行研究。计算机模拟将集中在如何比较过程中使用的因果模型的建设，挑战和测试，以及学习者应该如何放弃，修改，或继续其目前的模型作为结果。建模的现象将从发展文献（例如，学习什么样的东西可以浮动，以及什么量在物理变换下保持不变（即，保守现象））和成人学习因果模型的新研究。通过增加创建可以像人类一样学习的软件系统所需的科学基础，该项目将通过改进智能辅导系统，学习环境和决策支持系统以及智能系统的构建方式产生更广泛的影响。

Proposal 0628941"SGER: Comparison and Explanation in Learning and Development"PI: Kenneth D. ForbusNorthwestern UniversityABSTRACTThis project will investigate the roles of comparison and explanation in conceptual change, in both children and adults. Comparison seems to play a major role in human learning: People compare multiple situations to help construct models, compare models with data to see how well they explain it, and compare models to each other to determine what data might distinguish between them. A key problem is deciding when to accept, revise, or abandon a model, based on the successes and failures of its explanations. This problem will be investigated by a combination of theoretical work, computer simulation, and psychological experimentation. The computer simulation will focus on how comparison processes are used in the construction, challenging, and testing of causal models, and on how learners should abandon, revise, or continue with its current models as a consequence. The phenomena modeled will be drawn both from the developmental literature (e.g., learning what kinds of things can float, and what quantities remain constant under physical transformations (i.e., conservation phenomena)) and from new studies of adults learning causal models. By adding to the science base needed to create software systems that can learn more like people do, this project will have Broader Impacts through improvement of intelligent tutoring systems, learning environments, and decision-support systems, and in general on the way intelligent systems are built.