Representing Self-Knowledge for Introspection about Memory Search

Representing Mental States and Mechanisms

Volume

Representing Mental States and Mechanisms

Contents

This position paper sketches a framework for modeling introspective reasoning and discusses the relevance of that flamework for modeling introspective reasoning about memory search. It argues that effective and flexible memory processing in rich memories should be built on five types of explicitly represented self-knowledge: knowledge about information needs, relationships between different types of information, expectations for the actual behavior of the information search process, desires for its ideal behavior, and representations of how those expectations and desires relate to its actual performance. This approach to modeling memory search is both an illustration of general principles for modeling introspective reasoning and a step towards addressing the problem of how a reasoner-- human or machine--can acquire knowledge about the properties of its own knowledge base.