Allen Newell
Encyclopedia
Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science
and cognitive psychology
at the RAND
corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University
’s School of Computer Science
, Tepper School of Business
, and Department of Psychology. He contributed to the Information Processing Language
(1956) and two of the earliest AI
programs, the Logic Theory Machine (1956) and the General Problem Solver
(1957) (with Herbert Simon
). He was awarded the ACM
's A.M. Turing Award along with Herbert Simon
in 1975 for their basic contributions to artificial intelligence and the psychology of human cognition.
during 1949-1950, where he studied mathematics. Due to his early exposure to a new field known as game theory
and the experiences from the study of mathematics, he was convinced that he would prefer "a combination of experimental and theoretical research to pure mathematics" (Simon). Soon after, he left Princeton and joined the RAND
Corporation in Santa Monica where he worked for "a group that was studying logistics problems of the Air Force" (Simon). His work with Joseph Kruskal
led to the creation of two theories: A Model for Organization Theory and Formulating Precise Concepts in Organization Theory. Newell eventually earned his PhD from the now Tepper School of Business
at Carnegie Mellon with Herbert Simon serving as his advisor.
Afterwards, Newell "turned to the design and conduct of laboratory experiments on decision making in small groups" (Simon). He was dissatisfied, however, with the accuracy and validity of their findings produced from small-scale laboratory experiments. He joined with fellow RAND teammates John Kennedy, Bob Chapman, and Bill Biel at an Air Force Early Warning Station to study organizational processes in flight crews. They received funding from the Air Force in 1952 to build a simulator that would enable them to examine and analyze the interactions in the cockpit related to decision-making and information-handling. From these studies, Newell came to believe that information processing
is the central activity in organizations.
"described a running computer program that learned to recognize letters and other patterns" (Simon). This was when Allen came to believe that systems may be created and contain intelligence and have the ability to adapt. With this in mind, Allen, after a couple months, wrote in 1955 The Chess Machine: An Example of Dealing with a Complex Task by Adaptation, which "outlined an imaginative design for a computer program to play chess
in humanoid fashion" (Simon).
His work came to the attention of economist (and future nobel laureate) Herbert Simon
, and, together with programmer J. C. Shaw, they developed the first true artificial intelligence
program, the Logic Theorist
. Newell's work on the program laid the foundations of the field. His inventions included: list processing
, the most important programming paradigm used by AI ever since; the application of means-ends analysis
to general reasoning (or "reasoning as search"); and the use of heuristics to limit the search space.
They presented the program at the Dartmouth conference
of 1956, an informal gathering of researchers who were interested in simulating intelligence with machines. The conference, now widely considered the "birth of artificial intelligence", was enormously influential and those who attended became the leaders of AI research for the next two decades, Newell included.
and produced a series of important programs and theoretical insights throughout the late fifties and sixties. This work included the General Problem Solver
, a highly influential implementation of means-ends analysis
, and the physical symbol systems hypothesis, the controversial philosophical assertion that all intelligent behavior could be reduced to the kind of symbol manipulation that Newell's programs demonstrated.
Newell's work culminated in the development of a cognitive architecture
known as Soar
and his unified theory of cognition
, published in 1990, but their improvement was the objective of his efforts up to his death (one of the last Newell's letters).
The Award for Research Excellence of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
was named in his honor.
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
at the RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
’s School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S...
, Tepper School of Business
Tepper School of Business
The Tepper School of Business is a private business school located on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.The school consistently ranks highly among the top business schools in the U.S., as well as in a wide range of specializations, such as finance,...
, and Department of Psychology. He contributed to the Information Processing Language
Information Processing Language
Information Processing Language is a programming language developed by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon at RAND Corporation and the Carnegie Institute of Technology from about 1956...
(1956) and two of the earliest AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
programs, the Logic Theory Machine (1956) and the General Problem Solver
General Problem Solver
General Problem Solver was a computer program created in 1959 by Herbert Simon, J.C. Shaw, and Allen Newell intended to work as a universal problem solver machine. Any formalized symbolic problem can be solved, in principle, by GPS. For instance: theorems proof, geometric problems and chess...
(1957) (with Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
). He was awarded the ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
's A.M. Turing Award along with Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
in 1975 for their basic contributions to artificial intelligence and the psychology of human cognition.
Early studies
Newell completed his Bachelor's degree from Stanford in 1949. He was a graduate student at Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
during 1949-1950, where he studied mathematics. Due to his early exposure to a new field known as game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
and the experiences from the study of mathematics, he was convinced that he would prefer "a combination of experimental and theoretical research to pure mathematics" (Simon). Soon after, he left Princeton and joined the RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
Corporation in Santa Monica where he worked for "a group that was studying logistics problems of the Air Force" (Simon). His work with Joseph Kruskal
Joseph Kruskal
Joseph Bernard Kruskal, Jr. was an American mathematician, statistician, computer scientist and psychometrician. He was a student at the University of Chicago and at Princeton University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1954, nominally under Albert W...
led to the creation of two theories: A Model for Organization Theory and Formulating Precise Concepts in Organization Theory. Newell eventually earned his PhD from the now Tepper School of Business
Tepper School of Business
The Tepper School of Business is a private business school located on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.The school consistently ranks highly among the top business schools in the U.S., as well as in a wide range of specializations, such as finance,...
at Carnegie Mellon with Herbert Simon serving as his advisor.
Afterwards, Newell "turned to the design and conduct of laboratory experiments on decision making in small groups" (Simon). He was dissatisfied, however, with the accuracy and validity of their findings produced from small-scale laboratory experiments. He joined with fellow RAND teammates John Kennedy, Bob Chapman, and Bill Biel at an Air Force Early Warning Station to study organizational processes in flight crews. They received funding from the Air Force in 1952 to build a simulator that would enable them to examine and analyze the interactions in the cockpit related to decision-making and information-handling. From these studies, Newell came to believe that information processing
Information processing
Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
is the central activity in organizations.
Artificial intelligence
In September 1954, Newell enrolled in a seminar where Oliver SelfridgeOliver Selfridge
Oliver Gordon Selfridge , grandson of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges' department stores, was a pioneer of artificial intelligence. He has been called the "Father of Machine Perception."...
"described a running computer program that learned to recognize letters and other patterns" (Simon). This was when Allen came to believe that systems may be created and contain intelligence and have the ability to adapt. With this in mind, Allen, after a couple months, wrote in 1955 The Chess Machine: An Example of Dealing with a Complex Task by Adaptation, which "outlined an imaginative design for a computer program to play chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
in humanoid fashion" (Simon).
His work came to the attention of economist (and future nobel laureate) Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
, and, together with programmer J. C. Shaw, they developed the first true artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
program, the Logic Theorist
Logic Theorist
Logic Theorist is a computer program written in 1955 and 1956 by Allen Newell, Herbert Simon and J. C. Shaw. It was the first program deliberately engineered to mimic the problem solving skills of a human being and is called "the first artificial intelligence program." It would eventually prove 38...
. Newell's work on the program laid the foundations of the field. His inventions included: list processing
Information Processing Language
Information Processing Language is a programming language developed by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon at RAND Corporation and the Carnegie Institute of Technology from about 1956...
, the most important programming paradigm used by AI ever since; the application of means-ends analysis
Means-ends analysis
Means-Ends Analysis is a technique used in Artificial Intelligence for controlling search in problem solving computer programs.It is also a technique used at least since the 1950s as a creativity tool, most frequently mentioned in engineering books on design methods...
to general reasoning (or "reasoning as search"); and the use of heuristics to limit the search space.
They presented the program at the Dartmouth conference
Dartmouth Conference
The Dartmouth Summer Research Conference on Artificial Intelligence was the name of a 1956 conference now considered the seminal event for artificial intelligence as a field.-People:...
of 1956, an informal gathering of researchers who were interested in simulating intelligence with machines. The conference, now widely considered the "birth of artificial intelligence", was enormously influential and those who attended became the leaders of AI research for the next two decades, Newell included.
Later achievements
Newell and Simon formed a lasting partnership. They founded an artificial intelligence laboratory at Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
and produced a series of important programs and theoretical insights throughout the late fifties and sixties. This work included the General Problem Solver
General Problem Solver
General Problem Solver was a computer program created in 1959 by Herbert Simon, J.C. Shaw, and Allen Newell intended to work as a universal problem solver machine. Any formalized symbolic problem can be solved, in principle, by GPS. For instance: theorems proof, geometric problems and chess...
, a highly influential implementation of means-ends analysis
Means-ends analysis
Means-Ends Analysis is a technique used in Artificial Intelligence for controlling search in problem solving computer programs.It is also a technique used at least since the 1950s as a creativity tool, most frequently mentioned in engineering books on design methods...
, and the physical symbol systems hypothesis, the controversial philosophical assertion that all intelligent behavior could be reduced to the kind of symbol manipulation that Newell's programs demonstrated.
Newell's work culminated in the development of a cognitive architecture
Cognitive architecture
A cognitive architecture is a blueprint for intelligent agents. It proposes computational processes that act like certain cognitive systems, most often, like a person, or acts intelligent under some definition. Cognitive architectures form a subset of general agent architectures...
known as Soar
Soar (cognitive architecture)
Soar is a symbolic cognitive architecture, created by John Laird, Allen Newell, and Paul Rosenbloom at Carnegie Mellon University, now maintained by John Laird's research group at the University of Michigan. It is both a view of what cognition is and an implementation of that view through a...
and his unified theory of cognition
Unified theory of cognition
Unified Theories of Cognition is a 1990 book by Allen Newell. Newell argues for the need of a set of general assumptions for cognitive models that account for all of cognition: a unified theory of cognition ....
, published in 1990, but their improvement was the objective of his efforts up to his death (one of the last Newell's letters).
Awards and honors
- 1971 — John Danz Lecturer, University of Washington
- 1971 — Harry Goode Memorial Award, American Federation of Information Processing SocietiesAmerican Federation of Information Processing SocietiesThe American Federation of Information Processing Societies was an umbrella organization of professional societies established on May 10, 1961 and dissolved in 1990...
- 1972 — Elected to member of the United States National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
- 1972 — Elected to Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
- 1975 — A. M. Turing Award (with Herbert A. Simon), Association for Computing MachineryAssociation for Computing MachineryThe Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
- 1976-77 — Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial FoundationJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial FoundationThe John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922... - 1979 — Alexander C. Williams Jr. Award (with William C. Biel, Robert Chapman and John L. Kennedy), Human Factors Society
- 1980 — Elected to member of the United States National Academy of Engineering
- 1980 — First President, American Association for Artificial IntelligenceAmerican Association for Artificial IntelligenceThe Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence or AAAI is an international, nonprofit, scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines...
- 1981 — Charter recipient of the Computer Pioneer Award from the IEEE Computer SocietyIEEE Computer SocietyThe IEEE Computer Society is a professional society of IEEE. Its purpose and scope is “to advance the theory, practice, and application of computer and information processing science and technology” and the “professional standing of its members.” The CS is the largest of 38 technical societies...
- 1985 — Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological AssociationAmerican Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
- 1986 — Doctor of Science (Honorary), University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
- 1987 — William James Lectures, Harvard University
- 1989 — Award for Research Excellence, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
- 1989 — Doctor in the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Honorary), University of GroningenUniversity of GroningenThe University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
, The Netherlands - 1989 — William James Fellow Award (charter recipient), American Psychological Society
- 1990 — IEEE Emanuel R. Piore AwardIEEE Emanuel R. Piore AwardThe IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award is a Technical Field Award given each year by the IEEE to an individual or small team that has made outstanding contributions to information processing systems in relation to computer science. The award is named in honor of Emanuel R. Piore.The award was established...
- 1990 — IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award
- 1992 — U.S. National Medal of ScienceNational Medal of ScienceThe National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
- 1992 — The Franklin Institute’s Louis E. Levy Medal
The Award for Research Excellence of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S...
was named in his honor.
Further reading
- Oral history interview with Allen Newell at Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Newell discusses his entry into computer science, funding for computer science departments and research, the development of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, including the work of Alan PerlisAlan PerlisAlan Jay Perlis was an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award.-Biography:...
and Raj Reddy, and the growth of the computer science and artificial intelligence research communities. Compares computer science programs at Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon. - Full-text digital archive of Allen Newell papers
- Mind Models online Artificial Intelligence exhibit
- Publications by Allen Newell from Interaction-Design.org
- http://www.umsl.edu/~piccininig/Newell%205.htm Allen Newell by Gualtiero PiccininiGualtiero PiccininiGualtiero Piccinini is a philosopher working primarily on the nature of mind and computation as well as on how to integrate psychology and neuroscience. He is an associate professor in the Philosophy and Psychology Departments and the Center for Neurodynamics at the University of Missouri, St...
in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Thomson Gale, ed.