| Summary: | The thesis examines the loosely framed hypothesls that a computer progr3m can be designed to aid the gaining of new insights into practical real problems in a way which is 3n3logous to well established creative problem solving techniques. Two programs were designed and tested by the writer for this purpose. Evidence is provided to show that the programs do in fact assist in the galning of such new insights. The research comprises 3n analysis of the relev3nt literature and field studies taking the form of controlled experiments. The field research design. The first stage comprised the development of 3n early prototype program BRAIN. From this e::ercise ideas for further development of the progr3m were e::tracted together with a methodology for establishing how to record user interaction with the progr3m. The second stage of the field research involved the systematic testing of an enhanced version of the initi3l progr3m. The writer sought to establish how users interacted with the program. There was observed to be strong evidence that users did in fact interact with the program. It was noted that some users found the progr3m somewhat too bizarre for their own liking and had difficulty in making good use of the structure provided by the program. Further developments of the initial program, BRAIN, and the theoretical justification for the design of a second program, ORACLE, were made. ORACLE adopts the role of a process facilitator operating in the mode of a Rogerian type therapist. The computer program is developed from ideas associated with the ELIZA program developed by Weizenbaum and experience with the BRAIN program. The third stage of the research concerned itself with ascertaining whether the programs appeared to help users working with real problems - ie; ones over which they exercised personal ownership. At the same time an attempt was made to evaluate the effectiveness of the improvements made to the BRAIN program. The results obtained indicated that there was evidence to support the view that both programs assisted in the gaining of new insights into real, owned problems.
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