Coherence
Thagard has proposed that many cognitive functions, including perception, analogy, explanation, decision-making, planning etc., can be understood as a form of (maximum) coherence computation.
Thagard (together with Karsten Verbeurgt) put forth a particular formalization of the concept of coherence as a constraint satisfaction problem. The model posits that coherence operates over a set of representational elements (e.g., propositions, images, etc.) which can either fit together (cohere) or resist fitting together (incohere).
If two elements p and q cohere they are connected by a positive constraint, and if two elements and incohere they are connected by a negative constraint . Furthermore, constraints are weighted, i.e., for each constraint there is a positive weight .
According to Thagard, coherence maximization involves the partitioning of elements into accepted and rejected elements in such a way that maximum number (or maximum weight) of constraints is satisfied. Here a positive constraint is said to be satisfied if either both and are accepted or both and are rejected . A negative constraint is satisfied if one element is accepted(say ), and the other rejected .
Read more about this topic: Paul Thagard
Famous quotes containing the word coherence:
“Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.”
—A. Alvarez (b. 1929)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Art and ideology often interact on each other; but the plain fact is that both spring from a common source. Both draw on human experience to explain mankind to itself; both attempt, in very different ways, to assemble coherence from seemingly unrelated phenomena; both stand guard for us against chaos.”
—Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980)