Associative and Formal Concepts

In several fields there is a divide between formal and associative models of concepts and reasoning. For example, in AI associative models such as neural networks and evolutionary computation are distinguished from symbolic, logic-based approaches. In psychology, fuzzy or category-based approaches compete with the “classical” theory of classification. In information science, systems based on dynamic, emergent structures can be distinguished from formal, manually designed structures. This paper argues that both modes of representation, formal and associative ones, need to be considered simultaneously for knowledge representation systems. This paper investigates the relationship between formal and associative structures and provides suggestions for bridging the gap between the two modes of representation.