George W. Baylor

An information processing theory of aspects of the development of weight seriation in children

Abstract Children varying in age from six to 12 years were video-tape recorded while trying to seriate seven blocks according to weight with the aid of a scale. The typical behavior patterns that Piaget first described for the stages of intellectual development on this task were observed. Our protocols are analyzed in terms of stage specific base strategies coupled with a mechanism for translating them into task specific production systems. The actual simulation programs, written as production systems in a specially constructed language, BG, are evaluated in terms of how well they regenerate the protocols.

What Do We Really Know About Mendeleev's Dream of the Periodic Table? A Note on Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving

As is well known, some dreams have been instrumental in important scientific discoveries. Kekulés dream of the whirling snakes is probably the most famous instance though there was apparently no public written record of it until some 28 years later. Loewi, even in his own autobiographic material, appears never to have provided a written report of the dream that led him to carry out the experiment demonstrating the chemical transmission of nerve impulses to a frogs heart. Mendeleevs dream of the periodic table of elements in its completed form is apparently specious, despite repeated citations. Not only is there no dream report but evidence rests on a colleagues second-hand account. Kedrovs examination of archival material indicates (1) that Mendeleev had already discovered the periodic table before the alleged dream took place; and (2) that a dream quite plausibly occurred somewhat later that depicted an improved representation of the periodic table. Kedrovs reconstruction is consistent with other accounts of dreams and the process of scientific discovery.

Dreams as Problem Solving: A Method of Study — Part I: Background and Theory

Looking first at the nature of dreams as studied in the laboratory during the last thirty years, this article (Part I) considers methods of knowing dreams and what is meant by dream interpretation. Within the context of current research in cognitive science, it is proposed that at least some dreams are generated by a regulatory system seeking to establish organismic balance, and in this sense fulfill a problem-solving function. A five-step method designed to facilitate dream understanding is sketched: it is a programmatic procedure that helps users recover aspects of their own dream formation process and probes the regulatory system by helping users discern the problem(s) a dream may be attacking. In Part II, the method will be illustrated and evaluated through the analysis of one dream in extenso.

Mental Imagery and the Problems of Cognitive Representation: A Computer Simulation Approach

Protocol analysis and computer simulation are analytic tools that can be used to try to understand the role of visual mental imagery in the human problem-solving process. This approach, a theoretical psychology that draws heavily on artificial intelligence and experimental information-processing psychology, tries to account for stretches of human behavior by constructing computer programs that do the same thing in the same way that people do. To the extent that the running computer program accomplishes the task at hand, the program, which is a detailed and explicit formulation of mental structures and processes, provides a plausible model of how such knowledge can be represented and organized. Of course, as one moves towards psychologically more sophisticated models, more stringent process criteria for testing the model are imposed.