Integrating Marker Passing and Problem Solving : A Spreading Activation Approach to Improved Choice in Planning

A recent area of interest in the Artificial Intelligence community has been the application of massively parallel algorithms to enhance the choice mechanism in traditional AI problems. This volume provides a detailed description of how marker-passing -- a parallel, non-deductive, spreading activation algorithm -- is a powerful approach to refining the choice mechanisms in an AI problem-solving system. The author scrutinizes the design of both the algorithm and the system, and then reviews the current literature and research in planning and marker passing. Also included: a comparison of this computer model with some standard cognitive models, and a comparison of this model to the "connectionist" approach.