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Production Systems

- Production systems are defined by a set of tokens, starting positions for those tokens, and formal rules stating how token positions can change. Rules depend only on current positions and define the next positions. - Cognitive architectures like ACT-R and SOAR aim to characterize human information processing in terms of memory, symbols, operations, interpretation, and interaction with the world, making cognition analogous to computer systems. They use productions to represent skills and strategies for problem solving. - Studying cognitive architecture allows estimating parameters of human information processing, figuring out sources of errors, and developing unified theories of cognition with shared components across models. However, the explanations provided are mainly mechanistic descriptions of how people solve problems rather than why.

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66 views50 pages

Production Systems

- Production systems are defined by a set of tokens, starting positions for those tokens, and formal rules stating how token positions can change. Rules depend only on current positions and define the next positions. - Cognitive architectures like ACT-R and SOAR aim to characterize human information processing in terms of memory, symbols, operations, interpretation, and interaction with the world, making cognition analogous to computer systems. They use productions to represent skills and strategies for problem solving. - Studying cognitive architecture allows estimating parameters of human information processing, figuring out sources of errors, and developing unified theories of cognition with shared components across models. However, the explanations provided are mainly mechanistic descriptions of how people solve problems rather than why.

Uploaded by

Brian
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CogSci C131

Production systems and


cognitive architectures
Tom Griffiths

Admin
Problem set 0 is due 5pm Friday!
Python transition class 4:30 today in
2305 Tolman
All sections meet as normal this week
Office hours are now on bCourses
Reader is available from Fast Imaging
(2022 University) for $35.60+tax

Token manipulation systems


System is defined fully by
a set of tokens
starting positions for those tokens
formal rules stating how token positions can
be changed into other token positions

Rules depend only on current positions,


and define only the next positions

Example 2: Formal logic


Pieces

P, Q, , , , , (, )

Starting positions

well-formed formulas
e.g., P Q

Formal rules

e.g., P Q
P
Q

Outline
Production systems
Break
Cognitive architectures

Logic
Inference Rules

Facts

PQ

Q
P

The World

Logic Theorist
(Newell & Simon, 1956)

Herb Simon and Allen Newell

The first AI system


Found proofs by using
heuristics to search
the large space
Heuristics inspired by
human problemsolving strategies

Symposium on Information Theory


Often considered the birth of cognitive science
(on 9/11/56, at MIT)
Three famous papers presented:
Allen Newell & Herbert Simon, The Logic Theory
Machine: A complex information processing system
Noam Chomsky, Three models of language
George Miller, The magical number seven

Logic
Inference Rules

Facts

PQ

Q
P

The World

Early AI systems
Operations

Workspace

Facts

Operations
Goals
Actions
Observations

The World

Production systems
Operations are encoded in IF THEN form

Production fires when IF condition is


satisfied, executes instructions following THEN

String World
The world is a string of characters
e.g. ABC

Facts are properties of the string


e.g. initial substrings

Actions are rewriting parts of the string


e.g. AB -> BA

A production system
P1:
P2:
P3:
P4:
P5:
P6:

$$ -> *
*$ -> *
*x -> x*
* -> null & halt
$xy -> y$x
Where:
null -> $

x and y can be any letter


* and $ are reserved symbols
null is the empty symbol
halt ends execution

Some challenges
How do we decide which production to apply,
when many are possible?
execute the first
execute at random
execute via some complicated criterion

Should we allow any IF THEN rule to be in


our set of rules?

string = computation;
disp(string);

thought

Minds and computers are both formal systems

ACT-R
(Anderson, 1993)
Application
Declarative
Memory

Production
Memory
Match

Storage

Retrieval

Working
Memory

Encoding

Execution

Performance
Outside World

John Anderson

Declarative memory
Facts are represented by chunks
Chunks are activated by context
organized in a semantic network, which we
will talk about later in the semester

Procedural memory
Skills and strategies used in solving
problems are represented as productions

Hierarchy of goals viewed as one of the


key characteristics of human behavior
Productions differ in time to execute

Learning
People can acquire new chunks through
perceptual experience, or via productions
People can form new productions by
generalizing from experience

Learning
People can acquire new chunks through
perceptual experience, or via productions
People can form new productions by
generalizing from experience
Sets of productions can be compiled into
more efficient productions

Compiling productions
If certain productions regularly fire other
productions, then those productions can be
collapsed

Can be executed by another production

The power-law of practice


time = practice-

1023 alternative
choice task

(Siebel, 1963)

log(time) = -log(practice)

Asimovs
books

(Ohlsson, 1992)

The promise of production systems


All that there is to intelligence is the simple
accrual and tuning of many small units of
knowledge that in total produce complex
cognition
(Anderson, 1996, p. 356)
Simons (1981) metaphor of the ant

Just a matter of more rules

Doug Lenat

Same philosophy has


been applied to AI
The Cyc project aims to
collect rules for common
sense reasoning
You can download a
version with 300,000
concepts, 2,000,000 facts

The promise of production systems


All that there is to intelligence is the simple
accrual and tuning of many small units of
knowledge that in total produce complex
cognition
(Anderson, 1996, p. 356)
Simons metaphor of the ant

Productions can modify productions

Early AI systems
Operations

Workspace

Facts

Operations
Goals
Actions
Observations

The World

The promise of production systems


All that there is to intelligence is the simple
accrual and tuning of many small units of
knowledge that in total produce complex
cognition
(Anderson, 1996, p. 356)
Simons (1981) metaphor of the ant

Productions can modify productions


A programming language for human thought
just a matter of figuring out the productions!

Chatbots and productions

Break

Up next:
Cognitive architectures

Computation

Alan Turing
(1912-1954)

Computer architecture

John von Neumann

What architecture underlies cognition?


How can we characterize human information
processing in terms of
memory
symbols
operations
interpretation
interaction with the world

Cashing out the idea of cognition as a formal


system, explicitly analogous to computers

ACT-R
(Anderson, 1993)
Application
Declarative
Memory

Production
Memory
Match

Storage

Retrieval

Working
Memory

Encoding

Execution

Performance
Outside World

John Anderson

SOAR
(Newell, Rosenbloom, Polk, and Laird, 1987)

Production Memory

Chunking

Execution

Working Memory

Perceptual
Systems

Motor
Systems

Senses

Muscles

Outside World

Decision

Allen Newell

Why study cognitive architecture?


Estimate parameters characterizing
human information processing
how long does each operation take?

Additive factors analysis


Assuming that each operation takes a
fixed amount of time, estimate times by
manipulating operations involved

H
P
Z
Probe: Q

M
Probe: L

N
S
H
P
A
R
V
C
Probe: B

Additive factors analysis


Assuming that each operation takes a
fixed amount of time, estimate times by
manipulating operations involved

(Sternberg, 1967)

So estimate time for productions, to


build up to really complex tasks

Why study cognitive architecture?


Estimate parameters characterizing
human information processing
how long does each operation take?

Figure out whats going wrong

Why study cognitive architecture?


Estimate parameters characterizing
human information processing
how long does each operation take?

Figure out whats going wrong


Unified theories of cognition
rather than lots of different models, lots of
programs in a common language
shared components across different
models, connections between problems

What kind of explanations do we get?


What sort of unified theory do we develop?

Marrs three levels


constrains

Computation
What is the goal of the computation, why is it
appropriate, and what is the logic of the strategy
by which it can be carried out?

constrains

Representation and algorithm


What is the representation for the input and
output, and the algorithm for the transformation?

Implementation
How can the representation and algorithm be
realized physically?

What kind of explanations do we get?


What sort of unified theory do we develop?
Even if production systems are the right
way to characterize human cognition, all
we get is a mechanistic story
a program for every problem
describes how people do what they do
not why people behave in a particular way

Thursday
Formal systems and language
you get to read Chomsky!
think about different proposals for formal systems
that can capture the structure of human languages

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