Artificial intelligence and psychology
Simon was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, creating with Newell the Logic Theory Machine (1956) and the General Problem Solver (GPS)(1957) programs. GPS may possibly be the first method developed for separating problem solving strategy from information about particular problems. Both programs were developed using the Information Processing Language (IPL)(1956) developed by Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Simon.
Donald Knuth mentions the development of list processing in IPL,
with the linked list originally called "NSS memory" for its inventors. In 1957, Simon predicted that computer chess would surpass human chess abilities within "ten years" when, in reality, that transition took about forty years. He was awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Award along with Allen Newell in 1975. "In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. (Cliff) Shaw at the RAND Corporation, and subsequentially with numerous faculty and student colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, they have made basic contributions to artificial intelligence, the psychology of human cognition, and list processing."