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.Forbus西北大学这个项目将调查比较和解释在儿童和成人的概念变化中的作用。比较似乎在人类学习中扮演着重要的角色：人们比较多种情况以帮助构建模型，比较模型与数据以查看它们解释得如何，并相互比较模型以确定哪些数据可以区分它们。一个关键问题是，根据模型解释的成败，决定何时接受、修改或放弃该模型。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。计算机模拟将侧重于如何在因果模型的构建、挑战和测试中使用比较过程，以及学习者应该如何因此放弃、修改或继续其当前的模型。模拟的现象将来自发展文献(例如，学习什么类型的东西可以浮动，以及什么量在物理变化下保持不变(即，守恒现象))，以及来自对成年人学习因果模型的新研究。通过增加创建能够像人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教学系统、学习环境和决策支持系统，以及总体上改进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.