Chapter 3: Early Studies

The review of literature repeatedly revealed what seemed like a lacuna, blocking the way to integrating formalisms and theories with vital practical considerations and observations about the realities of complex tasks. This focused around the question of representation, and it was not at all clear from the literature how to proceed, if not all the way to bridging the gap, at least to surveying and laying some of the necessary foundations for the bridgework.

The studies reported in this chapter were not done as a consequence of the literature findings, but rather served to complement them. These studies were not only investigations of their own branches of literature, revealing similar problems to the main literature, in different contexts. They were also investigations into the practical aspects of the subjects, revealing practical as well as theoretical difficulties.

As such, these studies were very important in beginning to define areas of experimental research which might be more fruitful than others.