GPS, A PROGRAM THAT SIMULATES HUMAN THOUGHT

It is completely analogous to a set of difference equations that prescribes the transformation of a set of numbers through time. Given enough information about an individual, a program could be written that would describe the symbolic behavior of that individual. Each individual would be described by a different program, and those aspects of human problemsolving that are not idiosyncratic would emerge as the common structure and content of the programs of many individuals. But is it possible to write programs that do the kinds of manipulation that humans do? Given a specific protocol, such as the one of Figure 1, is it possible to induct the program of the subject? How well does a program fit the data? The remainder of the report will be devoted to answering some of these questions by means of the single example already presented. We will consider only how GPS behaves on the first part of the problem, and we will compare it in detail with the subject's behavior as revealed in sider the protocol. This will shed considerable light on how far we can con programs as theories of human problem-solving.