Introduction to production systems and schemata

Great class yesterday.

3 points to remember:

1: We place structure on our memories that help us get around its inherent limitations in capacity and processing speed: a) We classify similar situations and procedures into schemata; b) we chunk information to aid in complex behavior by overcoming limitations in STM; and c) the more specific our goals, the more narrow (and therefore less transferable) our memories become.
2: The metaphor of the mind as a computer is very powerful. Structure, in the form of production systems helps us explain how schemata are organized and interact. Condition-action pairs are the basic units by which logical operations are performed under this METAPHOR.
3: A reasonably small number of general schemata are sufficient (in their myriad combinations) to drive a large range of behavior. Some plans (or master programs, or superordinate production systems) "call" on other productions to compile a string of behaviors. The local information (like the size of the angle to be turned in our example) is placed in "slots" to "instantiate" these productions for action.
jim