Making Problem Situations, from Psychology to Computing to Design

Vollständiger Abstract

Worum geht es in dieser Arbeit?

I trace the historical development of how “problems” were staged by researchers in the sciences of psychology, computation, and design. I focus on how and why those researchers did so, and how their approaches elicited critique. By tracing conceptual and practical continuities from Edward Thorndike’s comparative psychology to Herbert Simon’s work on artificial intelligence and design, I show how problem situations were first created in laboratories, for animals and humans, then translated into programs run on stored program digital computers, and finally, used to conceptualize design expertise. Despite their claims to have created situations representative of neutral, naturally occurring problems, these researchers’ work highlights the artificial and intersubjective character of problems.