The Interdependencies of Theory Formation, Revision, and Experimentation
Abstract
This paper depicts theory development as a synergistic cooperation of scientific methodologies, each focusing on different aspects of the problem. It discusses how they may be integrated to provide a more unified and comprehensive treatment of scientific theory discovery. A general protocol is described for interaction between theory formation, theory revision, and experimentation. This protocol enables theory formation to make specific queries about the state of the world to fulfill its hypothesis generation goals. It also enables experimentation-based revision to post tasks for theory formation to supply relevant hypotheses. The utility and generality of this protocol is demonstrated by an implementation which integrates two previously autonomous systems. Its performance is described for discovering and revising models of evaporation and osmosis. ()
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA202882
Entities
People
- Brian Falkenhainer
- Shankar Rajamoney
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign