Conceptual Hierarchies in Classical and Connectionist Architecture

TitleConceptual Hierarchies in Classical and Connectionist Architecture
Publication TypeTechnical Report
Year of Publication1989
AuthorsKobsa, A.
Other Numbers509
Abstract

Representation systems for conceptual hierarchies have been used in the field of Artificial Intelligence for nearly two decades. They are based on symbolic representation structures and sequential processes operating upon these structures. Recently, a number of network structures have been developed in the field of Connectionism which are also claimed to be able to represent conceptual hierarchies. Processes in these networks operate in a parallel way and largely without a global control mechanism. This paper investigates the expressive power, interpretation, and inferential capabilities of these networks as compared to traditional representations, of concept hierarchies in particular to KL-ONE, a standard representation language for conceptual hierarchies in the field of natural-language processing. Although the capabilities of current connectionist hierarchies fall short of traditional representations, three inference processes will be described which can be very easily and elegantly realized in a connectionist architecture whilst they are hard and cumbersome to implement in traditional knowledge representation systems.

URLhttp://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/techreports/tr-89-010.pdf
Bibliographic Notes

ICSI Technical Report TR-89-010

Abbreviated Authors

A. Kobsa

ICSI Publication Type

Technical Report