Robert R. Hoffman

The psychology of expertise: cognitive research and empirical AI

Experts, who were the sole active dispensers of certain kinds of knowledge in the days before A1, have now often assumed a rather passive role. They relay their knowledge to various novices, knowledge engineers, experimental psychologists or cognitivists - or other experts - involved in the development and understanding of expert systems. This book aims to achieve a balance between experimentalists and theoreticians who deal with expertise. It tries to establish the benefits to society of an advanced technology for representing and disseminating the knowledge and skills of the best corporate managers, the most seasoned pilots, and the most renowned medical diagnosticians. This book interests psychologists as well as all those out in the trenches developing expert systems, and everyone pondering the nature of expertise and the question of how it can be studied scientifically.

The modulation contrast microscope: principles and performance

The modulation contrast microscope produces an image of high contrast and resolution. The image has a three‐dimensional appearance wherein a rounded object appears dark on one side, bright on the other with grey in between against a grey background. The performance features are optical sectioning, directionality, high resolution and control of contrast and coherence. A bright field microscope is converted to the modulation contrast microscope by adding the modulator, a special amplitude filter, in the objective. A slit aperture part of which is polarized is placed before the condenser. Below this is a rotatable polarizer. The modulator processes light from opposite gradients oppositely, that is brighter for one and darker for the other; thereby preserving the sign. The diffraction theory has been extended to show that gradient image intensity is the intensity of the zero order and when modified by the modulator creates a high contrast image.

Some Considerations in Using Color in Meteorological Displays

Abstract This article is intended to facilitate discussion of issues related to the use of color in new meteorological displays. Given the proliferation of new graphics display capabilities (e.g., overlays, animation, the combination of statistical models or numerical fields with satellite images, etc.) and new information sources (e.g., Doppler radar, wind profilers, etc.), the challenge of using color effectively without interfering with users’ abilities to interact with these systems has never been greater. Psychological and ergonomic research on the perception and interpretation of colored graphical displays is reviewed not only to ferret out recommendations but to disclose the design issues raised for meteorology. In addition to relying on tradition and consensus on meteorological symbology and the use of color, an iterative empirical strategy is recommended to help establish whether candidate color schemes could result in interpretation problems when applied to actual meteorological data.

Psychological factors in remote sensing: A review of some recent research

Abstract We review recent psychological research that pertains to remote sensing, with a focus on two major problem areas: The problem of eliciting and characterizing the knowledge of expert interpreters of remotely‐sensed data, and the problem of how to best utilize color in remote sensing displays. This research has immediate relevance to many remote sensing activities, but it also has broader implications. One general implication is that experimental psychology offers concepts and research methods that can be of benefit to the field of remote sensing. It is possible to discover the principles involved in the design of “good”; remote sensing displays, and the design of methods for teaching novices how to interpret remote sensing displays. A second broad implication of the psychological research is that remote sensing, as traditionally conceived, is actually just one part of a larger process of “remote perceiving.”; This idea is pursued in a second article (Hoffman, 1990), in which an attempt is made to ...

Recent Psycholinguistic Research on Figurative Languagea

The first actual experiments on metaphor were not conducted in 1975 or even 1970, but in the early 1900s in the psychological laboratories of Karl Buehler’ and others of the “Wurzburg” school of thought. Psychology at that time was dominated by the influence of Wilhelm Wundt. Psychologists were trained as physical and medical scientists and focused primarily on the psychology of sensation and perception. Wundt was dubious as to whether psychology could be used to perform experiments on higher mental processes such as problem-solving and linguistic reasoning. The psychologists at Wurzburg disagreed and conducted research on exactly these topics.* For instance, in one experiment, subjects were presented with pairs of proverbs that had similar meanings and they then had to engage in various comprehension and paraphrase tasks. In the years after the Wurzburg studies, the topic of metaphor was not forgotten among psychologists (for more details, see Honeck3). In particular, Gestalt psychologists such as Heinz Werner and Solomon Asch discussed metaphor with regard to the development of languages and cognition. Asch4 studied “double-function terms” in which aspects of one sensory modality are used to describe experiences in other modalities. For example, people are described as “hard,” “bitter,” “bright,” and so on. In the 1950s the Neobehaviorists Roger Brown and Charles Osgood referred to metaphor and its importance in language. Osgood’s semantic differential task has subjects rate various words and concepts on various affective and semantic dimensions to produce a scaling of word meanings. Both Brown and Osgood noticed the metaphors that the differential task would sometimes generate for instance, “excitement” is regarded as “vertical,” “colorful,” and “cro~ked” .~ Beginning in about 1970, interest in research on metaphor began to boom. We see in operation here a number of “Zeitgeist effects,” such as dissatisfaction with the Chomsky-Katz-Folor approach to language and meaning. Andrew Ortony6 organized a seminal conference at the University of Illinois in 1977 which brought linguists, philosophers, and psychologists together to discuss the theoretical issues. That same year, experimental psychologists began to organize symposia for the presentation of research.

Remote perceiving: A step toward a unified science of remote sensing

Abstract In a previous article (Hoffman & Conway, 1989), we reviewed some of the available psychological research that pertains to remote sensing. We focused on two major problem areas: Research on the knowledge of expert interpreters of remotely‐sensed imagery, and research on the use of color in graphic displays. Here, we pursue one of the broad implications of the research ‐ that the field of remote sensing can benefit by incorporating research methods and ideas from experimental psychology. From the experimental psychology viewpoint, “remote sensing”; is actually a misnomer when used to denote a field or area of scientific inquiry. Remote perceiving, as a total process, depends not only on the technology of remote sensing, but also depends critically on the ability of humans to interpret remote sensing displays. This perspective is contrasted with traditional approaches to remote sensing. The discussion involves some ideas about the theoretical and methodological foundations of remote sensing as a uni...

Whom (or what) do you (mis)trust?: historical reflections on the psychology and sociology of information technology

The article presents some reflections on the history of information technology. It use the sundial, the typewriter, the computer, the expert system, and the advanced information processing workstation (AIPW) as case studies to trace changes in the research and development process as it relates to human factors issues. The historical trends involve questions of trust-trust and mistrust of the computer technology on the part of the end user, on the one hand, and trust and mistrust of the research and development process on the part of system developers on the other.

Constructivism versus realism, or constructivism and realism

Abstract This brief essay examines the philosophy and knowledge elicitation methodology of constructivism with regard to ontological and epistemological premises, and links the philosophy to the broader world view called ‘contextualism’. Implications of the ontological and epistemological premises for practical problems in knowledge elicitation are highlighted.

AI models of verbal/conceptual analogy

This article surveys some psychological research on analogy and the theoretical notions that it spawned, which in turn have served as some of the foundationalnotions in AI models. A number of AI models of analogy are described. It is argued that future efforts could be based on the integration of the key insights of the models. This includes the incorporation of contextual information, the construction of dynamic semantic bases, the incorporation of multiple approaches to the problem of inference generation and constraint, and the construction of systems that can be used as test beds or tool kits for the analysis of representational and inference schemes. Along with the prospects, there are also pointers to the lingering issues.

Expertise in Context: Report on the Third International Workshop on Human and Machine Cognition

The Third International Workshop on Human and Machine Cognition was held in Seaside, Florida, on 13-15 May 1993. Each paper session included presentations on cognitive research, educational research, AI theory and logic, and particular knowledge engineering projects. This mixture encouraged the participants from diverse disciplines to listen and respond to one another. These international workshops are held to allow leading scientists, scholars, and practitioners to discuss current issues and research in particular topics in AI and cognitive science.