Exploring Computational Mechanismfor Contexts

-Human problem solving is done within a context, which constrains the solution space. There have been growing interests in computational modeling of contextual knowledge representation and context-based problem solving. There are different approaches to exploring the concept of context and corresponding computational mechanism for representing and utilizing the contextual model, both formal and empirical based on different interpretations of the notion. This paper explores and discusses some aspects of the computational mechanism for contexts, and proposes a goal-directed framework for context-based problem solving. In this model, a context is defined in terms of an object and its relationships with other objects. Every context is centered at such an object, and cannot exist without it. A problem-solving task (e.g. find an object) with this framework can thus be defined as a process of determining a context or a sequence of contexts in which a solution path (e.g. steps for finding the object) can be decided. A set of operations is specified for context manipulation. The questions the author tries to answer are: what is context, how can contexts be formed and manipulated, and how can contexts be used in reasoning and problem solving.