---
title: "Learning Problem-Solving Heuristics Through Practice"
authors:
  - "Tom M. Mitchell"
  - "Paul E. Utgoff"
  - "Bernard Nudel"
  - "Ranan B. Banerji"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/27"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/0027.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1981
pages: "127-133"
track: "Learning"
keywords:
---

# Learning Problem-Solving Heuristics Through Practice

Tom M. Mitchell, Paul E. Utgoff, Bernard Nudel, Ranan B. Banerji

*Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 127-133.

## Abstract

We are interested in automatic improvement of problem solving strategies through practice .** A computer program called LEX is described , which acquires problem solving heuristics in the domain of symbolic integration. LEX learns heuristics from a sequence of presented training problems by ( 11 using available heuristics to solve the practice problem . (21 analyzing the steps it performed in solving the problem . and (31 proposing and refining domain-specific heuristics designed to improve its performance on subsequent problems . We describe the methods used by LEX. results obtained by the program . and strengths and weaknesses in the current system.