BOUNDED RATIONALITY

BOUNDED RATIONALITY

1. 1) Rational principles, that underlie nonoptimizing adaptive behavior of real people (Simon, 1957)

   • Introductory notes - start reading here
   • H. A. Simon : search for alternatives, satisficing, aspiration adaptation
   • R. Selten: cognitive & MOTIVATIONAL bounds

2. 2) Physical Symbol System

   • only physical symbol system is capable of an intelligent behavior
     • ability to input, output, store and modify symbol structures
       • ability to perform these action responding to the symbols itselfs
         • H1 : Computers as physical symbol systems, can be programmed to think
         • H2 : The Human Brain is at least a physical symbol system
         • Adaptivity
           • ability to adjust the response according to the requirements of the task
             • Because of limits on their computing speeds and power intelligent systems must use approximate methods to handle most tasks. Their rationality is bounded (p.6)
               • 1 blade of scissors : environment
                 • different approximations = different solutions
               • 2 blade of scissors : thinking capacities of a system
                 • knowledge, skills, strategy

3. 3) Mechanisms for rationality - satisfactory solutions with modest computation

   • Procedural rationality
     • Recognition - intuition
     • Heuristics - rules of thumb
       • a) clear structure: search directly towards the goal
       • b) if the structure is unknown
         • satisficing
         • means - end analysis
     • Serial pattern recognition & organization

4. 4) Thinking & Reasoning

   • Problem-solving metaphor
     • goals are achieved by sequence of moves through a problem space
       • recognition of the conditions - action
   • Reasoning metaphor
     • goals = sentences derived from other sentences
       • rules of inference to derive new sentences

5. 4) Cognitive Architecture - "the whole cognitive man

   • Memories
   • Sensoric processors
   • Interpreters of motor signals
   • EPAM
   • GPS
   • Pattern Induction system
   • Systems for encoding natural language
   • Systems for encoding image representations
   • Adaptive production system

6. %) Other Approaches in Psychology

   • Individual differences
     • Knowledge
       • factual knowledge
       • learned skills
     • Strategies & transfer
   • Social Psychology
     • Social Environment of cognition
       • impact on acquisition of cognition
       • impact on structure of cognition