Expertise in Qualitative Prediction of Behaviour

concept ) concept (with fewer attributes) Abstract is de ned as removing an attribute from a concept. The abstract knowledge source makes a concept less speci c by abstracting away an irrelevant detail (see also specify). Abstract may also work on an instance. Classify (set of) attribute(s) ) concept The classify knowledge source takes a number of attributes and classi es these as representing a certain concept. In other words, a concept is recognised on the basis of its attributes. Another term for classify could be identify. Classify does not distinguish between generic concepts or instances of these concepts, although it usually will have a generic concept as output. Generalise (set of) concept(s) ) (generic) concept Generalisation is concerned with nding the common features in a number of concepts and trying to map these onto an existing concept or to develop a new concept. In the former, generalisation is closely related to classify. Developing a new concept is also known as induction, a reasoning technique often studied in the context of machine learning (cf. [39; 106]). Generalise can also work on instances, but will usually produce a generic concept as output. Instantiate concept (or structure) ) instantiated concept (or structure) This knowledge source creates an instance of a concept or a structure. The inference competence represented by this knowledge source may seem a bit trivial, because it involves some form of copying rather than actually inferring a proper relation. However, the distinction between general classes and speci c instances has to be made and that is exactly what this knowledge source does. Notice that this knowledge source is often an implicit part of other knowledge sources.