Allan M. Collins
Allan M. Collins is an American cognitive scientist and Professor Emeritus of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy. Collins' research is recognized as having broad impact on the fields of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and education.
Research Contributions
Psychology
Collins is most well known in psychology for his foundational research on human semantic memory and cognition. Collins and colleagues, most notably M.R. Quillian and Elizabeth Loftus, developed the position that semantic knowledge is represented in stored category representations, linked together in a taxonomically organized processing hierarchy (see semantic networks). Support for their models came from a classic series of reaction-time experiments on human question answering.[1][2][3]
Artificial Intelligence
In artificial intelligence, Collins has been recognized for his work on intelligent tutoring systems and plausible reasoning. With collaborator Jaime Carbonell, Collins produced the first documented example of an intelligent tutor system called SCHOLAR CAI (computer-assisted instruction). Knowledge in SCHOLAR was structured analogously to the then theorized structure of human semantic memory as to afford a of variety meaningful interactions with the system. Collins' extensive research program pioneered discourse analysis methods to study strategies human tutors to use to adapt their teaching to learners. In addition, Collins studied and developed a formal theory characterizing the variety of plausible inferences people use to ask questions about which their knowledge is incomplete. Importantly, Collins developed methods to embed lessons learned from such research into the SCHOLAR system, improving system usability and effectiveness. Subsequently, Collins developed WHY, an intelligent tutoring system that used the Socratic method for tutoring causal knowledge and reasoning. In conjunction with this project he developed a formal computational theory of Socratic tutoring, derived from analyses of inquiry teaching dialogues.
Education
Education and Professional Appointments
- B.A.,University of Michigan, 1959 (Accounting)
- M.A., University of Michigan, 1961 (Communication Sciences)
- Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1970 (Cognitive Psychology)
- Senior Scientist, BBN Technologies, 1967 - 1982
- Principal Scientist, BBN Technologies, 1982 - 2000
- Professor, Education & Social Policy, Northwestern University, 1989 - 2005
- Co-Director, U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Technology in Education, 1991 - 1994
- Research Professor, School of Education, Boston College, 1998 - 2002
- Visiting Scholar, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2001 - 2005
- Visiting Senior Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2005 - 2006
- Professor Emeritus, Education & Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2005 - present
Academic Honors and Service
- National Academy of Education, Elected Member
- Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Inaugural Fellow, 1990
- American Educational Research Association, Inaugural Fellow, 2008
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, 1974
- Sloan fellowship
- Founding chairman of the Cognitive Science Society, 1979 - 1980
- Board member of the Cognitive Science Society, 1980 - 1987
- Founding editor, Cognitive Science, 1976 - 1980
- Editorial board, Cognitive Science, 1980 - 2000
- Editorial board, Discourse Processes, 1977 - 1987
- Editorial board, Cognition and Instruction, 1981 - present
- Editorial board, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1990 - present
Noted and Representative Publications
References
- ^ Allan M. Collins (1969). "Retrieval time from semantic memory". Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior. 8 (2): 240–248. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(69)80069-1.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Allan M. Collins (1970). "Does category size affect categorization time?". Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior. 9 (4): 432–438. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(70)80084-6.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Allan M. Collins (1975). "A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing". Psychological Review. 82 (6): 407–428. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.82.6.407.
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