---
abstract: |
  We outline the rationale and preliminary results of using the State Context
  Property (SCOP) formalism, originally developed as
  a generalization of quantum mechanics, to describe the contextual manner in
  which concepts are evoked, used, and combined to
  generate meaning. The quantum formalism was developed to cope with problems
  arising in the description of (1) the measurement
  process, and (2) the generation of new states with new properties when
  particles become entangled. Similar problems arising
  with concepts motivated the formal treatment introduced here. Concepts are
  viewed not as fixed representations, but entities
  existing in states of potentiality that require interaction with a
  context---a stimulus or another concept---to `collapse' to
  observable form as an exemplar, prototype, or other (possibly imaginary)
  instance. The stimulus situation plays the role of
  the measurement in physics, acting as context that induces a change of the
  cognitive state from
  superposition state to collapsed state. The collapsed state is
  more likely to consist of a conjunction of
  concepts for associative than analytic thought because more stimulus or
  concept properties take part in the
  collapse. We provide two contextual measures of conceptual distance---one
  using collapse probabilities and the other weighted
  properties---and show how they can be applied to conjunctions using the pet
  fish problem.
altloc:
  - http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/papers/jetai.pdf
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: ~
conference: ~
confloc: ~
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
  - family: Gabora
    given: Liane
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
  - family: Aerts
    given: Diederik
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 2002-01
date_type: published
datestamp: 2004-02-09
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/27/25
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name:
  - family: Dietrich
    given: Eric
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 2725
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/2725/1/jetai.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: pub
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'analytical thought, associative thought, collapse, concept, conjunction, context, entanlement, exemplar, mathematical model, prototype, potentiality, quantum, representation, state, structure'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:08
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: 4
pagerange: 327-358
pubdom: TRUE
publication: Joural of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence
publisher: Taylor and Francis
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 12
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:46:26
subjects:
  - cog-psy
  - phil-mind
  - comp-sci-art-intel
succeeds: 2213
suggestions: 'The version of this paper (and also the one I just entered previously, and the two I am about to revise) are correct on this page, but the page that appears for the public does not have the correct page numbers. (The reason is that they were entered before i knew what the page numbers were. From now on I will wait until I know what the page numbers are, because to revise the properties of the document once it has been submitted seems to have difficulties getting complete.) Thanks.'
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: Contextualizing concepts using a mathematical generalization of the quantum formalism
type: journalp
userid: 352
volume: 14
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