Human problem solving: The state of the theory in 1970.
1971/02/01 by Herbert A. Simon, Allen Newell · 621 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · Psychology · #Cognitive Science and Mapping #Cognitive science #Computer science #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience #Design Education and Practice #Economics #Epistemology #Management science #Philosophy #Psychology #State (computer science)
paper · doi:10.1037/h0030806
published in American Psychologist 26(2), 145-159 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 1971/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract
WHEN the magician pulls the rabbit from the hat, the spectator can respond either with mystification or with curiosity. He can enjoy the surprise and the wonder of the unexplained (and perhaps inexplicable), or he can search for an explanation. Suppose curiosity is his main response—that he adopts a scientist's attitude toward the mystery. What questions should a scientific theory of magic answer? First, it should predict the performance of a magician handling specified tasks—producing a rabbit from a hat, say. It should explain how the production takes place, what processes are used, and what mechanisms perform those processes. It should predict the incidental phenomena that accompany the magic—the magician's patter and his pretty assistant—and the relation of these to the mystification process. It should show how changes in the attendant conditions—both changes "inside" the members of the audience and changes in the feat of magic—alter the magician's behavior. It should explain how specific and general magician's skills are learned, and what the magician "has" when he has learned them.
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