[Corpora-List] registering conceptual and phraseological prototypes

[John F Sowa]

On 7/3/2014 7:10 AM, Patrick Hanks wrote:
> The hypothesis I wish to propose is this:
>
> Humans are hard-wired to notice and register comparatively novel or
> unusual events (including their first -- potentially prototypical --
> exposure to an unfamiliar word or phrase) and to store stereotypical
> repetitions of familiar events (such as ordinary everyday usage) deep
> in the subconscious, not easily accessible for conscious recall.

A closely related term is 'schema'.  The following definition is based
on its use in logic from Aristotle to the present:

 From http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schema/
> A schema (plural: schemata, or schemas), also known as a scheme
> (plural: schemes), is a linguistic template or pattern together with
> a rule for using it to specify a potentially infinite multitude of
> phrases, sentences, or arguments, which are called instances of the schema.

Kant (1787) had a strong influence on all branches of cognitive science:
> Indeed, our pure sensory concepts are not based on images of objects,
> but on schemata.  For the concept of a triangle in general, no image
> could ever be adequate.  It would never attain the generality of the
> concept, which applies to all triangles...
> The concept Dog signifies a rule according to which my imagination
> can construct the figure of a four-footed animal in general, without
> being restricted to any particular image supplied by experience or to
> any possible image I may draw _in concreto_.  (A:141, B:180)

Otto Selz was a psychologist who was strongly influenced by Kant.
As a replacement for the loose associationist theories, Selz proposed
_schematic anticipation_ as a pattern-directed method for guiding
search toward a goal represented by a schema.  Adriaan de Groot applied
Selz's methods to the analysis of chess playing.  Herb Simon invited
de Groot to CMU, where he had a strong influence on AI research.
(Google the word 'schema' and the names Selz, de Groot, Simon...)

Bartlett (1932)	influenced Neisser (1967), Minsky (1974)...
> A schema is ... an active organization of past reactions, or of past
> experiences, which must always be supposed to be operating in any
> well-adapted organic response.

Piaget (1970)
> Whatever is repeatable and generalizable in an action is what I
> have called a schema.

Rumelhart, see 
http://biolawgy.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/rumelhart-d-e-1980-schemata-the-building-blocks-of-cognition-in-r-j-spiro-etal-eds-theoretical-issues-in-reading-comprehension-hillsdale-nj-lawrence-erlbaum/
> Schemata are the building blocks of cognition. They are the fundamental
> elements upon which all information processing depends. Schemata are
> employed in the process of interpreting sensory data (both linguistic
> and non-linguistic), in retrieving information from memory, in
> organizing actions, in determining goals and sub-goals, in allocating
> resources, and, generally, in guiding the flow of processing in the system.

John

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