Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and virtual reality (VR) make possible powerful interactive stories, and this paper focuses on examples of virtual characters in three dimensional (3-D) worlds. Waldern, a virtual reality game designer, has theorized about and implemented software design of virtual teammates and opponents that incorporate AI…

Paper presents a mathematical framework which describes an aspect of the means of communication between a physical system in motion and a sequential logic network. (Author)

Recent developments in artificial intelligence and decision analysis suggest reassessing the approaches commonly taken to the design of knowledge-based systems. Competent systems are based on models known as influence diagrams, which graphically capture a domain's basic objects and their interrelationships. Among the benefits offered by influence…

The paper describes an approach to developing systematic procedures for identifying handicapped children that leads to rational decisions regarding placement. An expert system is described which involves the user in a dialogue on data regarding individual children; this dialogue is similar in many ways to a consultation with an expert. After…

"The Sourcebook," a database of exemplars of representative problems in natural language understanding, is being developed for use in evaluating natural language processing systems. A literature search of the computational linguistics literature was used to identify the exemplars, which are analyzed in terms of the general issues…

Intelligent instructional systems can be distinguished from more conventional approaches by the automation of instructional interaction and choice of strategy. This approach promises to reduce the costs of instructional materials preparation and to increase the adaptability and individualization of the instruction delivered. Tutorial simulation…

The first section of this report examines, from a developmental perspective, the major theoretical positions dominating the literature on adult cognition. Two criteria are considered. First, how compatible are the theories with the notion that thinking systems develop within specific environments? Second, what are the implicit or explicit…

An Intelligent Computer Aided Instruction (ICAI) program that incorporates an Expert module which allows the tutor to compare the student's response to those generated by an expert was developed for use with Wumpus, a simple maze-exploration game. The Wumpus Advisor program offers advice to a player involved in choosing the best move in a game for…

This report summarizes computational investigations of language comprehension based on Marvin Minsky's theory of frames, a recent advance in artifical intelligence theories about the representation of knowledge. The investigations discussed explored frame theory as a basis for text comprehension by implementing models of the theory and developing…

A research plan for identifying and acting upon constraints that impede the development of knowledge-based intelligent systems is described. The two primary problems identified are knowledge programming, the task of which is to create an intelligent system that does what an expert says it should, and learning, the problem requiring the criticizing…

In this paper, Simon describes contemporary information processing approaches to the study of learning and thinking, and discusses the relevance of these studies to the distinction between rote and meaningful learning. Before defining the basic terminology of information processing research, he provides a brief literature review, describing some…

This manual describes the LOGO system implemented for the PDP 11/45 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The "system" includes a LOGO evaluator, a dedicated time-sharing system, and various special devices related to output such as robot turtles, tone generators, and cathode ray tube displays. (Author/SD)

This manual provides a brief description of the primitives in the computer language PDP 11 LOGO. It is intended to provide a quick reference for users who are familiar with the basics of the LOGO language. (Author/SD)

A new heuristic factorization scheme uses learning to improve the efficiency of determining the symbolic factorization of multivariable polynomials with interger coefficients and an arbitrary number of variables and terms. The factorization scheme makes extensive use of artificial intelligence techniques (e.g., model-building, learning, and…

Some of the major results of future goals of an automatic program synthesis project are described in the two papers that comprise this document. The first paper gives a detailed algorithm for synthesizing a computer program from a trace of its behavior. Since the algorithm involves a search, the length of time required to do the synthesis of…