The Genetic Epistemology of Rule Systems

Abstract

I shall describe a model of the evolution of the rule-structured knowledge that serves as a cornerstone of our development of computer-based coaches. The key idea is a graph structure whose nodes represent rules, and whose links represent various evolutionary relationships such as generalization, correction, and refinement. This graph guides both student modelling and tutoring as follows: the coach models the student in terms of nodes in this graph, and selects tutoring strategies for a given rule on the basis of its genetic links. It also suggests a framework for a theory of learning in which the graph serves as a memory structure constructed by the student by means of processes corresponding to the various links. Given this framework, a learning complexity measure can be defined in terms of the topology of the graph.