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Article 3603 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cnquinn@spectrum.cs.unsw.oz.au (Clark Quinn)
Newsgroups: aus.ai,comp.ai,comp.ai.edu,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: The procedural/declarative representation debate
Message-ID: <1992Feb9.223323.2871@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>
Date: 9 Feb 92 22:33:23 GMT
References: <1992Feb5.030936.1383@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>
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Reply-To: cnquinn@spectrum.cs.unsw.oz.au (Clark Quinn)
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>From the psychological side, Rumelhart & Norman in their chapter on
"Representation in Memory" in the Handbook of Experimental Psychology,
argue that the issue is one of "accessability", whether the information
is in a format that can be examined and manipulated by the interpreting
processes.  They then go on to say that the accessability is
context-dependent, that there are several levels of processing and
interpretations.  Anderson, who in his various incarnations of the ACT
system has used a composite of both declarative and procedural
representations, has commonly compliled frequently used declarative
information into procedural knowledge.  This would extend the idea to
include a use factor into the accessability.  Newell's SOAR system uses
just production rules but similarly compiles rules.  You can implement
a long-term declarative memory in production rules, blurring the
distinction.

Three types of data to account for in a model of whether there's a
distinction or not include 1) the ability to consciously report on the
components of a decision (you can tell me why you vote for a candidate,
but can you tell me how you know which carpet color appeals to you
more?), 2) how generally available the knowledge is (can you tell me
how many windows are in your house without walking around a mental
image of your house and counting?) and 3) the limitations on how much
you can do at once (you can only keep 7 +- 2 things in working memory,
limiting the things you figure with, but there's no such limitations on
practiced actions, how many things are you doing at once while driving
a car, such as clutch, gas, brake, turn signals, steering, watching the
road, listening to the radio, checking the mirror, all while continuing
to do whatever thinking you were doing such as worrying about
procedural/declarative distinctions).

Hope this helps.  -- Clark

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