A Quantitative Model for Pattern Recognition

This chapter describes a model for visual pattern recognition by pigeons that is an extension of a much more general model for learning and behavior described in earlier chapters in this series (Chase, 1983; Heinemann, 1983a,b). The model we present belongs to the class of template-matching model. The comparison process that may be loosely described as “template matching,” however, this is only one of several basic processes with which this model deals in detail. These processes include the development of “focal attention,” and memory storage and retrieval processes. Note that most basic assumptions of the model were introduced to deal with phenomena quite far removed from pattern recognition. For example, the assumption that the decision process that leads to response selection is based on only a small sample of the information that is held in long-term memory plays an essential role in the account the model gives of the outcome of experiments on probability learning and matching (Heinemann, 1983a), and on the limit on the number of stimulus values that can be accurately identified (Chase, 1983).