{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T18:27:47Z","timestamp":1767637667981,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Maximum Academic Press","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,7,7]],"date-time":"2009-07-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1246924800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":7614,"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/terms"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["The Knowledge Engineering Review"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1988,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>The level of abstraction of much of the work in knowledge-based systems (the rule, frame, logic level) is too low to provide a rich enough vocabulary for knowledge and control. I provide an overview of a framework called the Generic Task approach that proposes that knowledge systems should be built out of building blocks, each of which is appropriate for a basic type of problem solving. Each generic task uses forms of knowledge and control strategies that are characteristic to it, and are in general conceptually closer to domain knowledge. This facilitates knowledge acquisition and can produce a more perspicuous explanation of problem solving. The relationship of the constructs at the generic task level to the rule-frame level is analogous to that between high-level programming languages and assembly languages in computer science. I describe a set of generic tasks that have been found particularly useful in constructing diagnostic, design and planning systems. In particular, I describe two tools, CSRL and DSPL, that are useful for building classification-based diagnostic systems and skeletal planning systems respectively, and a high level toolbox that is under construction called the Generic Task toolbox.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0269888900004458","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,7,7]],"date-time":"2009-07-07T09:36:46Z","timestamp":1246959406000},"page":"183-210","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":73,"title":["Generic tasks as building blocks for knowledge-based systems: the diagnosis and routine design examples"],"prefix":"10.48130","volume":"3","author":[{"given":"B.","family":"Chandrasekaran","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"27968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2009,7,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref027","first-page":"445","article-title":"A mechanism for forming composite explanatory hypotheses","author":"Josephson","year":"1987","journal-title":"IEEE Trans"},{"volume-title":"Design: An Information Processing Level Analysis","year":"1988","author":"Chandrasekaran","key":"S0269888900004458_ref016"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref037","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00996197"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref039","unstructured":"Sticklen Jon , 1987. \u201cMDX2: An integrated medical diagnostic system\u201d PhD. Dissertation, Department of Computer and Information Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210."},{"volume-title":"Artificial Intelligence in Maintenance","year":"1985","author":"Tanner","key":"S0269888900004458_ref040"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref007","unstructured":"Bylander T , Smith J and Svirbely J , 1986. \u201cQualitative representation of behavior in the medical domain\u201d In: Proceedings of The Fifth Conference on Medical Informatics, pp. 7\u201311. Conference on Medical Informatics,Washington, DC, October 26\u201330, 1986."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Myers D R , Davis J F and Herman D , 1988. \u201cA task oriented approach to knowledge-based systems for process engineering design\u201d Computers and Chemical Engineering, Special Issue on AI in Chemical Engineering Research and Development, August.","DOI":"10.1016\/0098-1354(88)87020-0"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref038","unstructured":"Sticklen J , Chandrasekaran B and Josephson J , 1985. \u201cControl issues in classificatory diagnosis\u201d In: Proceedings of The 9th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,University of California,Los Angeles, CA, August, pp. 18\u201324."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref009","first-page":"9","volume-title":"AI Magazine","author":"Chandrasekaran","year":"1983"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref012","unstructured":"Chandrasekaran , 1987. \u201cTowards a functional architecture for intelligence based on generic information processing tasks\u201d In: Proceedings of the Tenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1183\u20131192, Milan,Italy, August, 1987."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MC.1986.1663283"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref034","first-page":"279","article-title":"Design Considerations for PEIRCE, a high-level language for hypothesis assembly","author":"Punch","year":"1986","journal-title":"Expert Systems in Government Symposium"},{"volume-title":"Proc A A A I Workshop on High-Level tools","year":"1986","author":"Bennett","key":"S0269888900004458_ref002"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref001","unstructured":"Allemang Dean , Tanner Michael C , Bylander Tom and Josephson John R , 1987. \u201cOn the computational complexity of hypothesis assembly\u201d Proceedings of IJCAI-87, Milan, Italy, August, 1987."},{"volume-title":"Source Book on the Foundations of AI","year":"1987","author":"Chandrasekaran","key":"S0269888900004458_ref014"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MEX.1986.4306977"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref005","unstructured":"Buchanan B , Sutherland G and Feigenbaum E A , 1969. \u201cHeuristic DENDRAL: A program for generating explanatory hypotheses\u201d Organic Chemistry."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref003","unstructured":"Brown D C , 1984. Expert Systems for Design Problem-Solving using Design Refinement with Plan Selection and Redesign, PhD thesis, The Ohio State University, August."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref021","unstructured":"Goel A , Soundararajan N and Chandrasekaran B , 1987. \u201cComplexity in Classificatory Reasoning\u201d In: Proc. National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 421\u2013425. Seattle,Washington, July 13\u201318, 1987."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref019","first-page":"153","volume-title":"Expert System in the Microelectronic Age","author":"Duda","year":"1980"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref015","first-page":"219","volume-title":"Expert Systems: The User Interface","author":"Chandrasekaran","year":"1988"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(82)90021-2"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref006","first-page":"66","article-title":"CSRL: A language for classificatory problem solving and uncertainty handling","volume":"7","author":"Bylander","year":"1986","journal-title":"AI Magazine"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref013","unstructured":"Chandrasekaran B , Smith J and Sticklen J , 1987. Deep Models and Their Relation to Diagnosis Technical report. Invited paper, Toyoba Foundation Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, August 1986, available as technical report from Laboratory of AI Research, Ohio State University."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(85)90016-5"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref030","first-page":"190","volume-title":"Readings in Medical Artificial Intelligence","author":"Miller","year":"1984"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref033","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(87)90050-6"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref036","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0098-1354(88)85003-8"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref008","unstructured":"Bylander Tom and Johnson Todd R , 1987. Structured Matching OSU CIS LAIR Technical Report."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref020","unstructured":"Friedland P , 1979. Knowledge-based Experiment Design in Molecular Genetics. PhD thesis, Stanford University, Computer Science Department."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref024","first-page":"122","volume-title":"Proceedings of Expert Systems Workshop","author":"Johnson","year":"1986"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref017","unstructured":"Clancey W J , 1981. \u201cNEOMYCIN: Reconfiguring a rule-based expert system for application to teaching\u201d In: Proc. Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 829\u2013836. IJCAI,Vancouver."},{"volume-title":"SALT: A Knowledge Acquisition Tool for Propose-and-Revise Systems","year":"1987","author":"Marcus","key":"S0269888900004458_ref028"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref011","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-444-70058-2.50008-5"},{"volume-title":"Computer-based Medical Consultations: MYCIN","year":"1976","author":"Shortlifie","key":"S0269888900004458_ref035"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref025","first-page":"43","volume-title":"Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Symposium","author":"Johnson","year":"1988"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref026","unstructured":"Josephson J R , Smelters D , Welch A K , Fox R , Flores G and Lyndes D , 1988. Generic Task Toolset DRACO Release\u2014Beta Test Including RA Technical report. The Ohio State University, Computer & Information Science Department, Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research, February."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref022","first-page":"34","article-title":"Knowledge organization and distribution for medical diagnosis","volume":"11","author":"Gomez","year":"1981","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Systems"},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref031","unstructured":"Mittal S , 1980. Design of A Distributed Medical Diagnosis and Data Base System PhD thesis. The Ohio State University."},{"key":"S0269888900004458_ref023","unstructured":"Hashemi S , Hajek B K , Miller D W , Chandrasekaran B and Josephson J R , 1986. \u201cExpert systems application to plant diagnosis and sensor data validation\u201d In: Proceedings of the Sixth Power Plant Dynamics Control and Testing Symposium, Knoxville, Tennessee, April, 1986."}],"container-title":["The Knowledge Engineering Review"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0269888900004458","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T14:42:02Z","timestamp":1767624122000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0269888900004458\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1988,9]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[1988,9]]}},"alternative-id":["S0269888900004458"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/s0269888900004458","relation":{},"ISSN":["0269-8889","1469-8005"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0269-8889"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1469-8005"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1988,9]]}}}