Concepts and Chunks in Cognitive Systems

Pat Langley

Keywords: Concepts, Chunks, Unified theories

TL;DR: This essay discusses the relation between concepts and chunks, as well as prospects for a unified computational account.

Abstract: Research in cognitive science, both empirical and theoretical, has implicitly distinguished between two types of mental structures: concepts and chunks. The first paradigm has studied people's ability to represent, recognize, and learn categories, with classification error and response time as typical measures. The second has examined humans' ability to store, use, and acquire recurring patterns, with memory capacity as the main dependent variable. The literatures on these two phenomena are nearly disjoint, but they also share many assumptions. In this essay, I review the similarities and differences between computational accounts of concepts and chunks, then propose some steps toward developing a unified theory of their roles in natural and artificial cognitive systems.

Paper Track: Commentary

Submission Number: 58