Abstract
This paper argues that all discoveries, if they can be viewed as autonomous learning from the environment, share a common process. This is the process of model abstraction involving four steps: act, predict, surprise, and refine, all built on top of the discoverer's innate actions, percepts, and mental constructors. The evidence for this process is based on observations on various discoveries, ranging from children playing to animal discoveries of tools, from human problem solving to scientific discovery. Details of this process can be studied with computer simulations of discovery in simulated environments.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anzai, Y. (1984), Cognitive control of real-time event-driven systems, Cognitive Science 8, 221–254.
Einstein, A. (1935), The World I See It, Translated by Alan Harris, London, J. Lane.
Kulkarni, D. and Simon, H.A. (1988), Processes of scientific discovery: The strategy of experimentation, Cognitive Science 12 (2).
Kohler, W. (1925), The Mentality of Apes, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Koslowski, B. and Bruner, J. (1972), Learning to use a lever, Child Development 43, 790–799.
Langley, P., Simon, H.A., Bradshaw, G.L., and Żytkow J.M. (1987), Scientific Discovery—Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes, The MIT Press.
Lenat, D. (1976), AM: an AI Approach to Discovery in Mathematics as Heuristic Search, PhD thesis, Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Mendel, G. (1865), Experiments in plant-hybridization, Reprinted in: ‘Classic Papers in Genetics, Edited by Peters, J.A. Prentice-Hall.
Mill, J. S. (1843), A System of Logic, University of Toronto Press and Routledge & Kegan Paul, Reprinted in 1963.
Newell, A. and Simon, H.A. (1976), Computer science as empirical inquiry: Symbols and search, Communications of the ACM 19 (3), 113–126.
Piaget, J. (1952), The Origins of Intelligence in Children, Norton, New York.
Piaget, J. (1954), The Construction of Reality in the Child, Ballantine, New York.
Popper, K.R. (1959), The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Torchbook, New York.
Shen, W-M. (1990), Functional transformation in ai discovery systems, Artificial Intelligence 41 (3), 257–272.
Shen, W-M. (1993), Discovery as autonomous learning from the environment, Machine Learning 12, 143–165.
Shen, W-M. and Simon, H.A. (1993), Fitness requirements for scientific theories containing recursive theoretical terms, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44, 641–652.
Shen, W-M. (1994), Autonomous Learning from the Environment, W.H. Freeman, Computer Science Press.
Turing, A.M. (1950), Computing machinery and intelligence, Mind 59, 433–460.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shen, WM. The process of discovery. Found Sci 1, 233–251 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00124612
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00124612