Explanatory Coherence and Belief Revision in Naive Physics

By Michael Andrew Ranney, Paul Thagard. 1988

Abstract : Students of reasoning have long tried to understand how people revise systems of beliefs. We maintain that people often change their beliefs in ways driven by considerations of explanatory coherence. This report describes computational model of how experimental subjects revise their naive beliefs about physical motion. First, instances are presented in which subjects changed their beliefs while learning elementary physics. Each of these cases involved an individual's attempt to explain a surprising observation. Next, we show how their belief revisions can be modeled using ECHO, a connectionist computer program that uses constraint satisfaction techniques to implement a theory of explanatory coherence. The resulting simulations even captured temporal characteristics of the observed changes in beliefs. Finally, the model's representational sensitivity and procedural robustness are discussed and one can show how ECHO can be used to generate empirical predictions about subjects' current beliefs. Keywords: Explanatory coherence; Belief revision; Naive physics; Connectionism.

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

Citations in the corpus

Explanation in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Social Sciences (2017, background): “The model has been demonstrated to align with how humans make judgements on explanations [150].”
When Are Tutorial Dialogues More Effective Than Reading? (2007, background): “It does not address the controversies surrounding their interrelationships and the cognitive processes involved in " removing " a misconception (Chi, Slotta, & de Leeuw, 1994; di Sessa, 1993; Ranney & Thagard, 1988; Reiner, Slotta, Chi, & Resnick, 2000; Slotta, Chi, & Joram, 1995).”
Models of Data: A Theory of How People Evaluate Data (2001, background): “One major alternative is the explanatory coherence network, which has been proposed by Thagard (1989, 1992; Ranney & Thagard, 1988).”
Explanation and Abductive Inference (2012, methodology): “The model has been instantiated in a connectionist network and successfully used to model human judgments (e.g., Ranney & Thagard, 1988; Thagard, Page 17 of 32 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com).”
Developing the changes in attitude about the relevance of science (CARS) questionnaire and assessing two high school science classes (2003, background): “Convince Me can think using its connectionist network (ECHO) which simulates aspects of human reasoning (Ranney & Thagard, 1988).”