Publication Details

A Paradigm for Reasoning by Analogy

by Kling, Robert E.

Technical Note 47R
Institution: AI Center, SRI International
Address: 333 Ravenswood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Apr 1971.

Note: SRI Project 8973. The research reported herein was sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Contract NAS12-2221.

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A paradigm enabling heuristic problem solving programs to exploit an analogy between a current unsolved problem and a similar but previously solved problem to simplify its search for a solution is outlined. It is developed in detail for a first-order resolution logic theorem prover. Descriptions of the paradigm, implemented LISP programs, and preliminary experimental results are presented. This is believed to be the first system that develops analogical information and exploits it so that a problem-solving program can speed its search.