Techniques and Methodology

Should Artificial Intelligence strive to model and understand human cognitive and perceptual systems? Should it operate at a more abstract mathematical level of characterizing possible intelligent action, independent of human performance? Or, should it focus on building working programs that exhibit increasingly expert behavior, irrespective of theoretical or psychological conccrlls? These questions lie at the heart of most current, debate on whether AI is a science, an art, or a new branch of engineering In fact, some researchers believe it is all three and consequently build systems that perform some interesting task, arguing for the "theoretical significance" and "psychological validity" of the approach. In fact, it assumes the cognitive psychology paradigm as central and suggests that AI research would benefit from closer adherence to the data and methods of psychological research We welcome contributions in support of other research methodologies in AI, as well as discussions com-Rcscarch for this paper was conducted at the LJniversity of Chicago Center for Cognitive Science under a grant.