Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!Black@YALE.ARPA From: Black@YALE.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: "Rational Psychology" Message-ID: <12279@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 29-Sep-83 18:29:39 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12279 Posted: Thu Sep 29 18:29:39 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Oct-83 04:17:36 EDT Lines: 37 From: "John B. Black" Recently on this list, Pereira held up as a model for us all, Doyle's "Rational Psychology" article in AI Magazine. Actually, I think what Pereira is really requesting is a reduction of overblown claims and assertions with no justification (e.g., "solutions" to the natural language problem). However, since he raised the "rational psychology" issue I though I would comment on it. I too read Doyle's article with interest (although it seemed essentially the same as Don Norman's numerous calls for a theoretical psychology in the early 1970s), but (like the editor of this list) I was wondering what the referents were of the vague descriptions of "rational psychology." However, Doyle does give some examples of what he means: mathematical logic and decision theory, mathematical linguistics, and mathematical theories of perception. Unfortunately, this list is rather disappointing because -- with the exception of the mathematical theories of perception -- they have all proved to be misleading when actually applied to people's behavior. Having a theoretical (or "rational" -- terrible name with all the wrong connotations) psychology is certainly desirable, but it does have to make some contact with the field it is a theory of. One of the problems here is that the "calculus" of psychology has yet to be invented, so we don't have the tools we need for the "Newtonian mechanics" of psychology. The latest mathematical candidate was catastrophe theory, but it turned out to be a catastrophe when applied to human behavior. Perhaps Periera and Doyle have a "calculus" to offer. Lacking such a appropriate mathematics, however, does not stop a theoretical psycholology from existing. In fact, I offer three recent examples of what a theoretical psychology ought to be doing at this time: Tversky, A. Features of similarity. PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW, 1977, 327-352. Schank, R.C. DYNAMIC MEMORY. Cambridge University Press, 1982. Anderson, J.R. THE ARCHITECTURE OF COGNITION. Harvard University Press, 1983.