Premium
Marker Passing as a Weak Method for Text Inferencing
Author(s) -
Norvig Peter
Publication year - 1989
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/s15516709cog1304_4
Subject(s) - inference , computer science , variety (cybernetics) , artificial intelligence , reading (process) , process (computing) , natural language processing , general knowledge , linguistics , psychology , programming language , social psychology , philosophy
The problem of deciding what is implied by a written text, of “reading between the lines” is the problem of text inference. To extract proper inferences from a text requires a great deal of general knowledge on the part of the reader. Past approaches have often used a “strong method” tuned to process a particular kind of knowledge structure (such as a script, or a plan). The alternative is a “weak method” which is applicable to a variety of knowledge structures. Just such a method is proposed here, one which recognizes six very general classes of inference. These classes are not dependent on individual knowledge structures, but instead rely on patterns of connectivity between concepts. Patterns are discovered, and inferences are suggested, by a process of marker passing between concepts.