Rule-Directed Interactive Transaction Agents: An Approach to Knowledge Acquisition

Abstract

A description of computer programs, called user agents, that can perform various tasks for the user. Interacting with users, these agents can learn facts and store them in a data base or learn data-manipulation procedures and represent them as programs. The agents are written in RITA, the Rule- directed Interactive Transaction Agent system, and are organized as sets of IF- THEN rules. Four types of RITA agents are described: (1) an exemplary programming agent that 'watches' a user perform a task, then writes a program to perform the same task; (2) a self-modifying agent that performs file transfer tasks, modifying itself to perform them with less help each time; (3) a tutoring agent that watches demonstrations of interactive computer languages or local operating systems, then creates teaching agents for assisting new users; (4) a reactive-message creating agent that elicits text to create a reactive message, which is then sent to a recipient who interacts with it, automatically returning a response to the sender.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1978
Accession Number
ADA052873

Entities

People

  • Donald A. Waterman

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Automatic Programming
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computer Languages
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Data Acquisition
  • Databases
  • Debugging
  • Host Computers
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Language
  • Operating Systems

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Computer Science.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.