Describe Newell and Simon's (1972) production system and production rules

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

One way in which computers can represent and organize procedural knowledge is in the form of sets of rules governing a production, which includes the generation and output of a procedure. Computer simulations of productions follow production rules (if–then rules), including an "if" clause and a "then" clause. People may use this same form of organizing knowledge or something close to it.

For example, suppose your car is veering toward the left side of the road. Then you should steer toward the right side of the road if you wish to avoid hitting the curb. The "if" clause includes a set of conditions that must be met to implement the "then" clause. The "then" clause is an action or a series of actions that are a response to the "if "clause.

For a given if–then rule, each condition may contain one or more variables. For each of these conditions, there may be one or more possibilities. For example, if you want to go somewhere by car, and if you know how to drive a car, and if you are licensed and insured to drive, and if you have a car available to you, and if you do not have other constraints (e.g., no keys, no gas, broken engine, dead battery), then you may execute the actions for driving a car somewhere. When the rules are described precisely and all the relevant conditions and actions are noted, a huge number of rules are required to perform even a simple task. These rules are organized into a structure of routines (instructions regarding procedures for implementing a task) and subroutines (instructions for implementing a subtask within a larger task governed by a routine). Many of these routines and subroutines are iterative, meaning that they are repeated many times during the performance of a task.

If you want to complete a particular task or use a skill, you use a production system that includes the entire set of rules (productions) for executing the task or using the skill