... solver can achieve are referred to as defining a problem space, or state space. Problem solving operators can be conceived of as changing one state in the space into another. The difficulty is to find some possible sequence of operators that goes from the initial state to the goal state in the problem space. We can conceive of the problem as a maze of states and of the operators as paths for moving among the states. In this concept, the solution to a problem is achieved through search, that is, the problem solver must find an appropriate path through a maze of states. This conception of problem solving as a search through a state space was developed by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon of Carnegie Mellon University and has become the dominant analysis of problem solving.2 In many real problems, this idea of the state space would not really apply, ...

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