ACQUIRING GRAPHICAL KNOW-HOW: AN APPRENTICESHIP MODEL
Date
1988-03-01
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Abstract
This paper studies the acquisition of procedural knowledge, or
"know-how", from end-users in the domain of interactive graphics. In
order to develop an open-ended system that is not restricted to any
particular class of drawings, heavy emphasis is placed on the user
interface. Experts (we call them simply "teachers") express procedures
constructively, using any of the tools available in the interactive
drawing environment. Well-structured procedures, including branches
and loops, are inferred using a variety of weak generalization
heuristics. The teacher's attention is concentrated on the system's
perceptual and inferential shortcomings through a metaphorical
apprentice called "Meta-Mouse". Its sensors are predominantly tactile,
which forces teachers to make their constructions explicit. Meta-Mouse
generalizes action sequences on the fly and eagerly carries out any actions
it can predict. Theoretical support for the design comes from two
sources: geometric phenomenology, which confirms that powerful
problem-solving methods are associated with common-place spatial
reasoning; and the fact that Meta-Mouse automatically imposes important
"felicity conditions" on the teacher's demonstrations.
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Computer Science