Knowledge engineering as a problem solving process

A prototype software tool for collecting, organizing, and analyzing complex problem solving is presented. The design of the tool is grounded in cognitive science findings concerning the processing styles that experts use to solve problems in domains that are knowledge rich and ill defined. Four salient characteristics of expert problem solving were selected as guides for building features into the software tool: opportunistic search, multiple views of the same information, chunking of information, and schema recognition. The prototype supports the first three of these characteristics in some form. The fourth characteristic, schema recognition, is being investigated for inclusion in the tool.<>