| Proteus: Visual Analogy in Problem Solving Abstract (2008) | |||||||||||||||
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| This work examines the hypothesis that visual knowledge alone is sufficient for analogical transfer of problem-solving procedures. It develops a computational theory of visual analogy in problem solving which has been implemented in a computer program called Proteus. Proteus provides two main things. Firstly, it provides a content account for visual analogy in problem solving, along with a corresponding vocabulary and data structures for representing the knowledge content. Secondly, Proteus provides a process account for visual analogy in problem solving, along with corresponding methods and algorithms. Proteus addresses all major subtasks of analogy. It also identifies a new subtask in the task stucture of analogical problem solving: dynamic generation of new mappings between the intermediate knowledge states in the source and the target cases when a step in the transferred procedure creates a new object. Finally, by examining the limitations of use of visual knowledge alone, Proteus helps identify the functional roles of (non-visual) causal knowledge in analogical problem solving. Key words: analogy, visual reasoning, visual knowledge, problem-solving, case-based reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning, diagrams 1 | |||||||||||||||
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