Skip to main content

Toward a Formal Model of the Shifting Relationship between Concepts and Contexts during Associative Thought

  • Conference paper
Quantum Interaction (QI 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7052))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The quantum inspired State Context Property (SCOP) theory of concepts is unique amongst theories of concepts in offering a means of incorporating that for each concept in each different context there are an unlimited number of exemplars, or states, of varying degrees of typicality. Working with data from a study in which participants were asked to rate the typicality of exemplars of a concept for different contexts, and introducing a state-transition threshold, we built a SCOP model of how states of a concept arise differently in associative versus analytic (or divergent and convergent) modes of thought. Introducing measures of expected typicality for both states and contexts, we show that by varying the threshold, the expected typicality of different contexts changes, and seemingly atypical states can become typical. The formalism provides a pivotal step toward a formal explanation of creative thought processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Piron, C.: Foundations of Quantum Physics. Reading, Benjamin (1976)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Aerts, D.: Being and change: foundations of a realistic operational formalism. In: Aerts, D., Czachor, M., Durt, T. (eds.) Probing the Structure of Quantum Mechanics: Nonlinearity, Nonlocality, Computation and Axiomatics. World Scientific, Singapore (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Aerts, D., Gabora, L.: Contextualizing concepts using a mathematical generalization of the quantum formalism. J. Theor. Artif. Intell. 14, 327–358 (2002)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Aerts, D., Gabora, L.: A state-context-property model of concepts and their combinations i: The structure of the sets of contexts and properties. Kybernetes 34(1/2), 151–175 (2005)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Aerts, D., Gabora, L.: A state-context-property model of concepts and their combinations ii: A hilbert space representation. Kybernetes 34(1/2), 176–204 (2005)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Gabora, L., Aerts, D.: A model of the emergence and evolution of integrated worldviews. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 53, 434–451 (2009)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Ashby, F., Ell, S.: Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology: Methodology in experimental psychology, vol. 4. Wiley, New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Evans, J., Frankish, K.: In two minds: Dual processes and beyond. Oxford University Press, New York (2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Hampton, J.: Inheritance of attributes in natural concept conjunctions. Memory & Cognition 15, 55–71 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Piaget, J.: The Language and Thought of the Child. Harcourt Brace, Kent UK (1926)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gabora, L.: Cultural focus: A cognitive explanation for the cultural transition of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic. In: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gabora, L.: Revenge of the ’neurds’: Characterizing creative thought in terms of the structure and dynamics of human memory. Creativity Research Journal 22(1), 1–13 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Gabora, L., Rosch, E., Aerts, D.: Toward an ecological theory of concepts. Ecological Psychology 20(1), 84–116 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Guilford, P.: Creativity. American Psychologist 5, 444–454 (1950)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Finke, R., Ward, T., Smith, S.: Creative cognition: Theory, research and applications. MIT Press, Cambridge (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Chaiken, S., Trope, Y.: Dual-process theories in social psychology. Guilford Press, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Freud, S.: An outline of psychoanalysis. Norton, New York (1949)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Russ, S.: Affect and creativity. Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Barsalou, L.W.: Context-independent and context-dependent information in concepts. Memory & Cognition 10, 82–93 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. James, W.: The principles of psychology. Dover, New York (1890)

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Veloz, T., Gabora, L., Eyjolfson, M., Aerts, D. (2011). Toward a Formal Model of the Shifting Relationship between Concepts and Contexts during Associative Thought. In: Song, D., Melucci, M., Frommholz, I., Zhang, P., Wang, L., Arafat, S. (eds) Quantum Interaction. QI 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7052. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24971-6_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24971-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24970-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24971-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics