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Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence

AI*IA 2009: AI*IA 2009: Emergent Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence pp 182–191Cite as

The Necessity of Machine Learning and Epistemology in the Development of Categorization Theories: A Case Study in Prototype-Exemplar Debate

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5883))

Abstract

In the present paper we discuss some aspects of the development of categorization theories concerning cognitive psychology and machine learning. We consider the thirty-year debate between prototype-theory and exemplar-theory in the studies of cognitive psychology regarding the categorization processes. We propose this debate is ill-posed, because it neglects some theoretical and empirical results of machine learning about the bias-variance theorem and the existence of some instance-based classifiers which can embed models subsuming both prototype and exemplar theories. Moreover this debate lies on a epistemological error of pursuing a, so called, experimentum crucis. Then we present how an interdisciplinary approach, based on synthetic method for cognitive modelling, can be useful to progress both the fields of cognitive psychology and machine learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophical and Epistemological Studies, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Carlo Fea, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Gagliardi

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  1. Francesco Gagliardi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento de Science Sociali, Cognitive e Quantitative, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Allegri 9, 42100, Reggio Emilia, Italia

    Roberto Serra

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell‘Informazione, Università degli Studi di Modena, Via Vignolese 905, 41100, Modena, Italy

    Rita Cucchiara

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Gagliardi, F. (2009). The Necessity of Machine Learning and Epistemology in the Development of Categorization Theories: A Case Study in Prototype-Exemplar Debate. In: Serra, R., Cucchiara, R. (eds) AI*IA 2009: Emergent Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence. AI*IA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5883. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10291-2_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10291-2_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10290-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10291-2

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