Epistemic action
Epistemic actions are ways an agent has of modifying the external environment to provide crucial bits of information just when they are needed most.
Thus, we distinguish pragmatic actions – actions performed to bring one physically closer to a goal – from epistemic actions – actions performed to uncover information that is hidden or hard to compute mentally (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994).
Epistemic actions stand in contrast to pragmatic actions. The latter are actions designed to bring one physically closer to a goal. Walking to the fridge to fetch a beer is a pragmatic action. Epistemic actions may or may not yield such physical advance. Instead, they are designed to extract or uncover information. Looking inside the fridge to see what […]