Similarity-based reasoning in conceptual spaces

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Peter Gärdenfors¹  Steven Verheyen²  Igor Douven³  Matías Osta-Vélez⁴  Shira Elqayam⁵ 

[1] Cognitive Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands;IHPST / CNRS / Panthéon–Sorbonne University, Paris, France;Institute of Philosophy II, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany;School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom;

关键词: category-based induction;    conceptual spaces;    inference;    similarity;    similarity based reasoning;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1234483

 received in 2023-06-04, accepted in 2023-08-14,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Whereas the validity of deductive inferences can be characterized in terms of their logical form, this is not true for all inferences that appear pre-theoretically valid. Nonetheless, philosophers have argued that at least some of those inferences—sometimes called “similarity-based inferences” —can be given a formal treatment with the help of similarity spaces, which are mathematical spaces purporting to represent human similarity judgments. In these inferences, we conclude that a given property pertains to a category of items on the grounds that the same property pertains to a similar category of items. We look at a specific proposal according to which the strength of such inferences is a function of the distance, as measured in the appropriate similarity space, between the category referenced in the premise and the category referenced in the conclusion. We report the outcomes of three studies that all support the said proposal.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Douven, Verheyen, Elqayam, Gärdenfors and Osta-Vélez.