Heterogeneous Proxytypes Extended: Integrating Theory-like Representations and Mechanisms with Prototypes and Exemplars
This work addresses a theoretical problem in cognitive science for researchers studying conceptual representation, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing proxytype proposals.
The paper tackles the problem of reconciling different theories of typicality in conceptual representation by proposing an extension to heterogeneous proxytypes, introducing a novel theoretical hypothesis and categorization algorithm called DELTA to integrate theory-theory with prototype and exemplar-based approaches.
The paper introduces an extension of the proposal according to which conceptual representations in cognitive agents should be intended as heterogeneous proxytypes. The main contribution of this paper is in that it details how to reconcile, under a heterogeneous representational perspective, different theories of typicality about conceptual representation and reasoning. In particular, it provides a novel theoretical hypothesis - as well as a novel categorization algorithm called DELTA - showing how to integrate the representational and reasoning assumptions of the theory-theory of concepts with the those ascribed to the prototype and exemplars-based theories.