Concept Learning: Convexity Versus Connectedness.

In the context of the conceptual spaces framework, it has been argued that a natural concept is represented by a convex region in a similarity space. The convexity requirement has been defended on grounds of cognitive economy: among other benefits, concepts represented by convex regions have been sa...

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Publicado en:Erkenntnis Vol. 91; no. 1; pp. 445 - 463
Autores principales: Douven, Igor, Verheyen, Steven
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jan2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      tig:
        atl: Concept Learning: Convexity Versus Connectedness.
      aug:
        au:
          Douven, Igor
          Verheyen, Steven
        affil:
          https://ror.org/02nnpw434 CNRS, IHPST, Paris, France
          Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Rotterdam, Netherlands
      su:
        Concept learning
        Mathematical connectedness
        Cognition
        Curvature
        Cognitive ability
        Configuration space
        Color space
        Artificial neural networks
      sug:
        subj:
          Concept learning
          Mathematical connectedness
          Cognition
          Curvature
          Cognitive ability
          Configuration space
          Color space
          Artificial neural networks
      keyword: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology
      ab: In the context of the conceptual spaces framework, it has been argued that a natural concept is represented by a convex region in a similarity space. The convexity requirement has been defended on grounds of cognitive economy: among other benefits, concepts represented by convex regions have been said to be easily learnable, or more easily than concepts represented by nonconvex regions. There is some evidence that concepts in use are represented by regions that are convex, or at least almost so. There is so far no evidence that concepts represented by convex regions are more easily learnable than ones represented by regions that satisfy topological criteria that are somewhat less stringent, most notably that of connectedness. This note presents the outcomes from computational studies carried out on perceptual color space as well as on a shape space for representing various container objects, indicating that convexity indeed facilitates learning more than does connectedness. The studies use the training of neural nets as a model of human learning.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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