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Why John Married Mary: Understanding Stories Involving Recurring Goals
Author(s) -
Wilensky Robert
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1207/s15516709cog0203_3
Subject(s) - character (mathematics) , relation (database) , set (abstract data type) , epistemology , computer science , psychology , cognitive science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , mathematics , geometry , database , programming language
A story understander needs a great deal of knowledge about people's goals. This knowledge is needed to infer explanations for the behavior of the characters in a story. Sometimes a character's behavior cannot be explained in terms of a particular goal, but only in relation to a set of recurring goals that a character anticipates having. The concept of goal subsumption is introduced to deal with these situations. Goal subsumption is a way of planning for many goals at the same time. It occurs in three different types of story situations, each of which has its own rules for recognition and understanding.