Communicating generalizations : probability, vagueness, and context
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Knowledge that extends beyond the present context is crucial to thrive in our open-ended, dynamic world, and generic language (or generics, e.g., "Birds fly", "Mosquitos carry Zika", "Bill smokes") is a simple way to communicate such generalizations to and from one another. Though found in every language and emerging early in development, generic language is philosphically puzzling and has resisted precise formalization. In this thesis, I propose the first formal account of generic language that makes quantitative predictions about human understanding. This formalism is both general enough to explain behavior in multiple dependent measures across diverse domains and precise enough to capture fine-grained, context-sensitive differences in understanding. Having such a unified, computational framework sheds light on the mechanisms by which conceptual knowledge can influence judgments about generics. It also allows us to quantitatively compare the context-sensitivity of interpretation vs. production, clarifying the role of generics in stereotype propagation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Tessler, Michael Henry |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Goodman, Noah |
| Thesis advisor | Goodman, Noah |
| Thesis advisor | Frank, Michael C |
| Thesis advisor | Markman, Ellen M |
| Degree committee member | Frank, Michael C |
| Degree committee member | Markman, Ellen M |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Michael Henry Tessler. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Michael Henry Tessler
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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