A Formal Approach to Structural Design Automation Using Predicate Logic

The common approach to engineering software development involves the identification of relevant concepts, relations between concepts, and strategies for manipulating concepts and relations in an informal manner. We believe that although the informal approach to the identification and utilization of engineering knowledge may be sufficient for a certain class of problems, it fails to systematically support the development and study of complex automated (intelligent) engineering systems. Therefore, a formal approach is needed for such developments and studies. In this paper a formal theory that captures the knowledge associated with the physical behavior of structural systems is formulated. The physical behavior of structural systems is defined as the response (member displacements and member forces) of the structure to its environment (applied loads and boundary conditions). Predicate logic is used as the underlying formal language of the theory and the resolution theorem proving strategy is used for reasoning about the theory. The use of the formal theory for the analysis and synthesis of structural systems is illustrated and several research areas where the formal approach shows promise are discussed.

Effects of Bizarre Imagery on Children's Memory

Two groups of preschool children (younger, 42.07 months; older, 55.29 months) were compared on their ability to recall Normal, Low Bizarre, and Highly Bizarre line-drawn interactive pictures of object pairs. The objects were first presented individually, then in an interaction condition (e.g., Normal condition, matches lighting a pipe; Low Bizarre condition, a pipe in a frying pan; High Bizarre condition, a fish smoking a pipe). The children were then told that one object (the stimulus member of the pair) would be presented and that they would later be asked to recall the object (the response member of the Pair) that went with it. The older children performed equally well on this paired-associate learning task in all three conditions. In contrast, the younger children had significantly fewer recalls for the response objects in the Low and High Bizarre conditions.