Laboratory Replication of Scientific Discovery Processes
Abstract
Fourteen subjects were tape recorded while they undertook to find a law to summarize numerical data they were given. The source of the data was not identified, nor were the variables labeled semantically. Unknown to the subjects, the data were measurements of the distances of the planets from the Sun and the periods of their revolutions about it -- equivalent to the data used by Johannes Kepler to discover his Third Law of planetary motion. Four of the 14 subjects discovered the same law as Kepler did (the period varies as the 3/2 power of the distance), and a fifth came very close to the answer. The subjects' protocols provide a detailed picture of the problem-solving search they engaged in, mainly, but not exclusively, in the space of possible functions for fitting the data, and provide explanations as to why some succeeded and the others failed. The search heuristics used by the subjects are similar to those embodied in the BACON program, a computer simulation of certain scientific discovery processes. Keywords: Scientific discovery; Learning; Search; Cognitive processes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 30, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA219273
Entities
People
- Herbert Simon
- Yulin Qin
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University