A Model of Tacit Knowledge and Action

Natural Intelligence is based not only on conscious procedural anddeclarative knowledge, but also on knowledge that is inferred fromobserving the actions of others. This knowledge is tacit, in that theprocess of its acquisition remains unspecified. However, tacitknowledge is an accepted guide of behavior, especiallyin unfamiliar contexts. In situations where knowledge is lacking,animals act on these beliefs without explicitly reasoning about theworld or fully considering the consequences of their actions. Thispaper provides a computational model of behavior in which tacitknowledge plays a crucial role. We model how knowledge arises fromobserving different types of agents, each of whom reacts differentlyto the behaviors of others in an unfamiliar context. Agents'interaction in this context is described using directed graphs. Weshow how a set of observations guide agents' knowledge and behaviorgiven different states of the world.