Beliefs, Points of View, and Multiple Environments* YORICK WILKS Cognitive Studies Centre

The paper describes o system for deoling with nestings of belief in terms of the mechanism of computational environment. A method is offered for com-puting the beliefs of A about B (ond so on) in terms of the systems existing knowledge structures about A and B separately. A proposol for belief percolo-tion is put forward: percolation being a side effect of the process of the com-putation of nested beliefs, but one which could explain the acquisition of unsupported beliefs. It is argued that the mechanism proposed is compatible with o general least effort hypothesis concerning human mental functioning