Generative Creativity - lecture 18:
Concept dynamics

Difficulties with Boden's distinction

• exploration (search within existing conceptual spaces) from

• transformation (construction of new conceptual spaces).

This has come to be seen as her `definition' of creativity, although it is clear that she never intended to be treated as such.

Ambiguity problems

Also, there is the fact that transformation must entail concept construction, which entails exploration.

Transformation entails exploration?

Transformation is exploration?

Or do both emerge from a common foundation?

Look at some of the possible forms of constituent structure...

Basic constituent structure

Categorical and compositional concept-combination.

Illustrative constructions

Categorical and compositional construction in a vehicles domain.

Levels of abstraction

Construction of a reality-TV concept

Analogy production

Archimedes's `volume' analogy.

Theory emergence

Pasteur's vaccination analogy.

Implicit prototypes

Implicit structure mapping

Copycat-style structures

EMI-style structures

Are exploration and transformation emergent?

Are these two processes just variants of constitutive concept formation?

Summary

• Constituent conceptual structure

• Categorical v. compositional constituency

• Levels of abstraction

• Analogy production

• Theory emergence

• Implicit prototypes

• Implicit structure mapping

Exercises

• Let's say we have a concept for every card in a pack, i.e., one for `two of diamonds', one for `queen of hearts', one for `five of spades' and so on. Which of the following poker concepts should be classified as compositional with respect to the card concepts, and which as categorical? (If you've never played poker, visit http://www.pagat.com/vying/pokerrules.html to get the rules.)

• How many compositional concepts can be constructed directly in terms of the concepts for Jack, Queen and King of hearts? How many categorical concepts can be constructed?

• If the card concepts are considered to be the 0th level, what is the level of the concept `four of a kind'? What would a 2nd-level concept in the hierarchy be like?

• On the basis of everyday herb concepts such as `organo', `parsley', `marjoram', `fennel', `garlic', `basil' and `tarragon', we then have a wide range of categorical concepts, including `aromatic', `culinary', `medicinal', `warm acrid' and `cool acrid'. Compositional concepts seems to be much more rare in this conceptual domain. Why is this?