BEPBINTEO FROlv,l:
ADVANCED
COMPUTERS
IN
RESEARCH
ON
EDUCATION
Proceedings of the lFlP TC3 lnternational Conference 0n Advanced Research 0n
computeß in
EducationTokyo, Japan,
1B
20 JulY, 1990Edited by
ROBERT LEWIS
D epartne nl of PsychaloryUniversity of Lanc aste
r
Lancaslet U.K.
SETSUKO
OTSUKI
DepatTment al AtTtficial lntelligence Kyushu lnstitute of Technology
tizul,,z, Japan
NH
II'I-C
tglLt
r'l)t*l
v))
1S9l NORTH HOLLANDAII/ISTERDAIVI NEW YORK . OXFORD . TOKYO
Elevio Scien@ Publishds 3.v, (Nonh üolland) t37
The
Relevanceof
Computational Models
of
Knowledge Acquisition
for the
Designof
Helpsin the
Problem Solving
Monitor ABSYNT'
Claus Möbus
Department of ComptrndoMl Sciences Univeßity of Old€nburg
D 2900 Oldenbürg, F.R.
Gemey
Euner mcbus@uniol.uucpCompubtiodar tuodels of krowlodge eqüisidon
e
indispensablefü
rhe design of intelllgent tutoring systens. They give advice how ro designiartrctioas,
helps and erylanations.Wewant to show how two kinds of tuodeh (errernal and
irrerrrl
)re
useful for rhe designof
prcblen soh,rg
ronrcF
'PS\4s,. E.oecidl üequaliD orhe
o.
\ca\iallo,
rhed!(eplcnieof
a PSM. To püt
it
short:
Whcn are helps üsefül ahd ehen dre the! confusing ot pose newprobl%
to thelear@?'
This paper
offeß
a contibution toICAI in
the franework of ihelroblem
solving moniror ABSYNT. Our system - a special variani of an Inteuigent Tutoridg System(lTS)
is designed with respectto a sequence of 37proganüing
tasks which a& to be solved by stldenls inüe
visual functional coftpute. laqguage ABSYNT (ABsd"ct SYNmx
T@9.
Besides providing the leamer with a frien.üy problem solving envjronnenr including aäelp.onpor.rr.
u seres us as a tesbed for rcsemh in the donai,n ol intention-based diarrcstics, plan-parsinp and dßipnof
l"lpr
for problems soLvers.Research in these domains candol be done without stldyinE üe knotle.lge acquisnbn pro.ess
of the srudent.
tfaming
processese
modelled by .oftputatianal learaing mo.lels \e.E.l1l,l2l'
lnr-edonc,nor
PSMS tre dj\r:ngui.h e\rem4Mo,nrerl,orpula'
onämooe\
qn;,?,nülmJdel i:
dn irre8raredpm of,LePSMüdi.L.uall)
ered
\,"J/a/
eJl l,l l.
min
purpose ß the useFtailored generation of i.structions. helpsdd
explanations. Anar.rtul
model is nor a funcrional conponent of a PSM but is developed in pdallel using a broad darabasis to gain a mole comllere insight into rhe leaming process of the subject.
41üe
presentsräre of ar't these modeh
wiil
rcpresent rhe knowledge acquisition process and rhe knowledgesraß of the student at different gräin sizes and ranges. One of rhe reasoDs for üis discEpancl is the facl thar PSMS üe at üe present
üomnt
unablet)
anälyse üe full .a!ge of !rcblem solving behaviorwhich includes lerbal daraI4l.In€mal
nodels are based on data whicb fte PSM can gaüeronline. whercas our exiemarftode\
are based on videotaped lroblem solving se$ions of dyades. which conmin verbal episodes.l
ABSI'I.ITMS MAdC TCdNY b} K,D.FRANK. CJANKE. K KOHNERT, O.SCHRöDER Md H.J.THOL!
'*
This demh was sponsoEd by rhe Deußche Foßchun8s8cncinsch.ft {DFG) n the SPP Psychology of138
We
üinl
rhat rhe development of PSMS or lTSs shouldincllde
,or,
questions: Fi.st, how should theleming
prcess be modetled with an extemal model to develop hrpothesesfor
thel.riga
oroptioal
helps and second how should the su.lenr6odel
acquia ldowledge to Sereldre actual lserrail@d
helps. Modelinsüe
knowledse acquisitionlroces
of srudenls with extemal modelsh6led
us to thecorclusion rharleming
prcceses in our domaincd
beadequarely described by a conbjnation of an
,upars?-drtrer
(rDL) f5l ändrM.e$
dri!"n
(SDL) t6l-t?llemins
theory(IDLSDL
Theory)t8l
t101.IDL
SDL hakes predictionswrr,
the sbdentwill
a.ceprinfomtion
as help,-lr"'
sAe even acrivelywill
r.dr.n
foi ne{ lnfomabon ard,/dr
contenl of infomarion willsrt
üe srude.ßneeds. This has pracrical consequences for rhe construction ofPSMs. The
der€, o/t"rera.rile
and addptiee hzlps reqüifts üe successful solunon of a r)i n(hranization problen beveen the
knowledge snte ofthe
lemer
and the diagrosis of rhe PSM conceming rhis state:rhe studentüodel. So in our PSM the dpda,e of
üe
inteinal studentüodel
addüe1/rr,r,o,
of helpinfomdon
folows IDL SDL Thedy developed with extemal nodels.2.
The
Problem-Solving
Monitor
ABSYNTPSMS provi.le rhe leüner with a
problemiohing
environment including a diagnosis but nocuricular componenl. ABSYNT is used to communicate knopledge about a visual, purcly funcdonal, ree like visual
progmming
language based on ideas published in german schoolI I 1l and univeßity text books [ 12]. Futher motivntion for the design of ABSYNT is given in
tl3l.
Basic resedch dealingwnh
üe design of üe sysrem ftom apry.äologi.dl point of vlewis descnbed jn 11,11- f171.
ABSYNT provides
^n
icohic enrirannent
and is äimed at suppdting rhe äcqüisitionof
functional programming concepts up to
/scmde
')stsfts. A program consists of a head and a
body dee. Also there is a stan tree
froft
which plogniDs can be called. The nodes of t\e lreesee consranrs, pdameteß,
pribitive
and self defined operators. The connecrions between the nodes alethe lipelines
for conEol and data flow. PDgrams üe edited by ßkjns nodes wirhthe mous ftom a menu bd md comecdng üem.
On demand rhere is also a visual räce which was implenented according 10
üe
runnable specificadonof
the inrerpreter 1151. Additionally the user can test h)?orheses aboui rhecorecfles
or her^is implemcntanons. Fig@sI
and 2 depict snapshots of the interfäce when a srudent has prcgrammed a wrong solution of thep.oblen
even
andries
!o p.opose some hypotheses about the usefulnes of larts of his progrm. The mswers to her^is hypothesesm
generated byrules defining a goals-mean$relation (GMRI morc deiails bolow). This leedbackcan be vieved as helpr frcm th. sysFm ah the laiEMEe lerel.
3.
Rule-basedHelp
for
tne Acquisition
of
Semanticand
PlanningI
is standard theory in cognitive scien€ to assume that !rcgranrming rcquires rhe a.rDarirndd
4ppli.@nb, of at least four knowledge soüces:
1.
nathenaticala.laleotii"n.al!rcloowledge
2.
knowledge about ihes]"tLt
of the ldguage3.
knowledge abour üe scuartt r ofthe ldguage4.
plazdr8
kdowledge about tbe pragtuatical use of the languagelr is qujre nalural to design helps accordingly.In our reseuch we confine ourselves ro rhe
No
ad 3: 2
D
d?s
describing the olerdrionor ffua4r'cr of tlte ABSYNT-lhCuage [ 16],[18]{.),4: Planaing rules which
descnbeprS/ening
tMledge
n)ABSYNTLI9Ie
€
E
@
No:
Yoü
hypothesis cenor be conlleted ro a solurion known by the system.Figu.e 1:
A
snatshoi of the ABSYNT-irErlace showing an incorect program with a user hypothesis (bold)dd
rhe sysrems feedback.Figu.e 2: The ABsYNT-interface showing
oother
user hypothesjs. The system retums rhe hypothesis (lower half on theldr)
to indicate its corechess. On denand (boldline)
the system shows rhe nexr node of a conplele solution (lower hall on the /i8n4.140
The behavior of
üe
ABsYNT-interpreter can be predicted by rhe knowledgeof
18 'srate centercd'se@d.
r'der. They were reprEsented äs two-djmensional visual rules which seNe ashel! material for ABSYNT Ds6.The complete set
cd
be found in tl8l.
P
laaniq
kno||ledge fot 37 tasks is rcprcsented in 462 rules which define üe GMR. The GMRcm
be looked at as arrk-rased
infe/enceqsten.agtanna,
ot an ANDIOR-Gruphqith
pdamerized nodes. Thenles
desinild
but nore powerfll than those found in f1l.l2l.[20]. The GMR is able roaebse
and s)rrnesize sevelal millions of soludors evenif
üe heightol
ABSYNT
tres
isfstricted
to five nodes. Because nodesof
the AND/OR e.aph can beodarem4d
ior subgoals. rhe relarion endble\ analysis and.ynrhe\is oteven pdrddl solu,ion\ which enables rhe testing ofüser hypotheses (Figu.es 1, 2). An exabple fo. the Cnphicsl and natural language compilation of oneplming
nle
is give. inFigG
3-Rule: "Planning
aRecursion
on theGoal
level"
IF
THEN
AND
IF
THEN
Fisure
3üe bain
goaris
to prcgraßthe
evenpre.licate which
can
beapplie.l
to
a
subgodlrhe solurion of üis goal comprises üe folowing srep:
lede
qee
in the worksheet of üe ABSYI.IT enviionment for rhe )€t lo beprogramed ABSYNT tree
your next plaming ste! creares rhe moe dirercffiated AND goal üee
rhe solulion of this new goal is a ABSYNT tree which can be inserred in rhe solution of th€ main goäl
4.1
The GMR is delined by the
plan
q
rules and rcpftsents the corc of rhe help system ar the/an8kge /evel, which is designed according to sode postulates. It should:
.
offer the e viroMent to che.kwtioß
lEpotheses about the usefulnessof
several parts of the piogmm proposed by the student
.
ebbodlavett
knawledee to genemte helps ol solution prcposals.
ädCrrre Coals, intentionsdd
the tnowledge stare of üe poblem solver.
cohnahicate htu kharldd8e (belps) only inrrrrttlt?
lrne periods, where the problen solver is wnling lo ecept suchinfmüor
t5l.
Sather data ftom the hyothesis-testing process,rl;a
to adapt the inEmal shrdlnt model continuously.
deliver akl!nikitul
ilomdria,
so thar the studeqt is able to leave tleinpase
situation by his own ilus iüproving his problem solving skills
"lhß
intertrbe
lEpothesß drtueh approach ß lathet d\ttercntfton
oüer sysEms known flomliteratu.e I1l, f21l -1251 and is a anred consequence of
IDLSDL
TheolyG6
betow).4.
Extemal and
Int€rnal
ComDutational Modelsof
Kno\tledge Acquisition
An
External Model
for
the Acquisition
of
Rule
Knowledgeon
the
Basisof
Yisual
HelpsA
n€{e<6'yFeßq-i"
eorpogrmmingi\.omeknowledge"bour
the'yntll
a_d.etunbc.ot
.he language\e
:r,d,ed
rhe d!qu,r uonol tenaa
, ln
alpd8c. The
\ena1ri.
or
lrogralnming languages can be definedin
three ways: (a) the opelatiohal apprcach. (b) the denotationdl apprc.h
Md(c)
rhedionat.
ap?rcach. We chose the oteradonal approach becauseit
seemed 10 us more suitabtefor
nonces than the oiheß. The behaviorof
ihe ABsYNT-inrerpreteris representtdbyt
o tlitunsiohal (2 D) rßüdl /alss wbich pere süppliedas help marerial in case of difficulries or impsses. We asked subjecß 10 predict the acdons
of
the ABsYNT'inlerpierer
[8] ilOl-
The resulrs dealingwirh
knowledge acquisitioncm
bedescribed by an
trsratt€
twa4tagesinuldtiot
nodelwhich is capable ofpredicting 607aof
continuous ponions ofercoded prct@ols [10]:
t . Knoa lctlgc a, qu^ idon
ot
trpase-dn ve4 lem, ngDjfficulties 1261. t27l or inpasses L5l, t28l lead ro problem solvins by the applicarlon of weak heulisticr. With the help of the visual iules new knowledge about the s€mntics of ABSYNT is storcd in
nenory.
2. KtuwledSe
aprinizatio
by succes drivenleming:
Due lo !racti@, the knowledg€ is reorganized so that it can be used
borc
efficiently. In tbe sibilation model this ß done by
üe.oflpositiat dtules
to compound iules t29l,l30l and mcro-operatos like rule nets 1311.The daä show rhar the sDbjecß prcdicted tbe bohavior of the interpreter and tbe computadon
ol
prcsrams on the bäsis of nental tules
ü
nental nacro operaraff. They used helpidfomtion
ohly
in
hotuptinizarion stages of the lrocess. The questlon is, wheüer to adapr rhe helpoaterial accordingly. That is to offer visual rules and visual
neio
rülesst,.r/orted
roüe
112
4.2
An
lDternal Model
for
the Acquisition
of
Rüle
Knowledgeon
the
Bäsisof
Checking Users
Hypothes€sOu
doDai. dakes it absolutely necessaryto.aarldtn
tho o\ewh.lni,nglaryEleedbdck spdce by an intemal nodel (sludent model) wbich is not implemenled yer It is not unusual that aNer
hypoftesis car be completEd by a hundred solulons- Even when only rhe ,exr node is shown üere are too
Mny losibilities
ro ch@se Aom. IDL-SDL-Theory tels us to pspose only helps which the use.co
assidilate according to his knowledge state. Gcnemtion of apFopnate bellsnüsr be done by rhe srudent model wbich
h6
to b€ leaned autoüatically.A knowledge stare
ß
liewed as a setofnles,
malrules. andüeir
comtosites. The student nodel consisrs of üar ser ofnles
which can gene*rle the implehentationsdd
which can bede.ived from the student's proposals of hyporheses.
The
acq|ßitian o/
rules and their composites is easy. Those rüles which were used for sulce.sf.I Dar:rns naket
ch.rnol
ptuhslly instantialed planningn
le:
The'e rulrsce
bF.orpo,ed
iod
generdli^d arcord:4s rol2o. l0l1o
htgh?ttLannhe
n tPucr.Coroo.ine
nsuccessive rules results in an n rh order schem€- The highest schede is a tu1e which relates a
prcgralming task to a complete soluionr an
eMblle.
'the dcquisnion of
tulrules
is a bit trickier. Prografts ar€ ne€s. Selecting a subr@ for ahyporhesis
is
equivalenrlo
cür therce
(FiSure 4left).
With our GMRit
is
possible to reconstnct various goals depending on which üee is used fot rhe reconstuction af the eodls.we
can reconsdud thermr
goal of üe,/,ole
F@. the root goal zA, of the s?k.red tree, rhc toor go?l Z ot the not selected tree and the conexr of ZA' in the nor selecled bur duronan.a/ly cowleted üee whi,.h ls <ZA,ZB,ZC>. These Z's arc eoals of the sübrees wnhin üe righl sideof the rdnc planning
nle. If
ZA' is not equivalent tozA
then the selected lree implements armng
goal. Fromüis infolmtion
(goal conflicts) we can generale malnles, rheir composites,and
eior
expldations.concrete
program
iree
studeni
)(=
proposal
of
lhe
selecled
lo
rhypothesis
goal
tree
In the ned futurc we
will
convert the rules of üe GMR into visual planning helpsGe
Figw
3as an
exdple)
.z
tle
Sddl ldr?/. But additional design features arc necessry. which arcMomended
by our extemal and intemal modEl:Oü
drerdl
model allowed rhe fuflber development of IDL-SDL-Theory. Tha! theory sives two main advices to PsM-buildeß:.
The.,,Fn,
of helps has to be syndo.i@d !o rhe knowledge state consistidg of tules and mac.ooPerätors..
Helps should only be offercd a! inpaserue.
Besl is !o ler tne user äsk foi help.Oü
t
l?/rrl
model (yet ro beinll6m.teo
win.
auromarica-llylemnles
ald malnles al impasw time (hlTothesis tes!tine).
consEain tne feedb'rck space.
explaid erms on rhe basis of goal conflicß or goal colisionsr implemenBdons vs. taskBonh models give valuable irfomalion for the design of PSMS: The
aterdl
eodel for Sereldldesign dzcßiors, tle intettul t\odel
tü
caüete
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