In general, each person has an idiosyncratic neural threshold. That is Almost Gates require different numbers of triggering inputs to fire.
A person with a high Almost Gate requires a close match (more similarities) between a new stimulus and a learned category to see a match. Their outlook is quite literal. Fewer categories are associated with the bar for matching so high. An extreme case would be a person who demands that the cover image of “rose petals” for a woman’s biking blog be explained. The metaphor makes no sense to him.
Contrary-wise, those with a low Almost Gate see associations between many, many things. That can be useful because they have more premises to draw conclusions upon; unfortunately, it also causes them often overlook differences that turn out to be significant.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the theory that an individual’s thoughts and actions are determined by the language or languages that individual speaks.
The strong version of the hypothesis states that all human thoughts and actions are bound by the restraints of language, and is generally less accepted than the weak version.
The weak version says that language only somewhat shapes our thinking and behavior.
Instead of considering linguistic relativism as limiting the possibilities of thought, a more productive perspective is that language organizes experience in a manner which has yielded useful thoughts and behaviors over the language’s lifespan.
“Some believe their success is based on innate ability; these are said to have a “fixed” theory of intelligence (fixed mindset). Others, who believe their success is based on hard work, learning, training and doggedness are said to have a “growth” or an “incremental” theory of intelligence (growth mindset).
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books, Penguin Random House, New York, 2016. Print. 978-0-345-47232-8
Information is believed to be transmitted not by a single firing of a neuron, but by the neuron’s spike train: either by overall rate of firing or by precise timing of firing.
I have removed that complication in the discussion, because it does not alter the fundamental idea. Any set of input which exceeds the neuron’s threshold is treated the same thereafter. The Almost Gate is operational.
Scholarpedia. http://www.scholarpedia.org/. Web site. Dec. 15, 2017.
From Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The mathematical proof technique called “mathematical induction” is deductive and not inductive. Proofs that make use of mathematical induction typically take the following form:
Property P is true of the natural number 0.
For all natural numbers n, if P holds of n then P also holds of n + 1.
Therefore, P is true of all natural numbers.
When such a proof is given by a mathematician, and when all the premises are true, then the conclusion follows necessarily. Therefore, such an inductive argument is deductive. It is deductively sound, too.
From WikiPedia article. Bolding added.
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding information available for processing. Working memory is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, but some theorists consider the two forms of memory distinct, assuming that working memory allows for the manipulation of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to the short-term storage of information
Memory is not a photograph of external reality stored in the brain, but a reconstruction based on observed event, personal emotional impact, and learned relationships.
Consider the Almost Gates that the current situational features go through. Our remembered situations also go through the same path. When there is sufficient matching of results (neural thresholds are surmounted), the situations fit in the same abstract category. Other features of the situations may or may not be comparable.
Professor Maguire quoted in a Wellcome press release in Dec. 2011.
The current situation, remembered situations, and 3S imperatives – in their manifestations as emotions, personality traits, goals, desires, and fears – feed into neurons whose outputs lead ultimately to different actions.
The neuron whose Almost Gate is surmounted triggers its action chain. With so many neural inputs streaming from various sources, it’s unsurprising that typically our 3S imperatives are not completely satisfied by our response.
Bayes’ theorem describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. For example, if cancer is related to age, then, using Bayes’ theorem, a person’s age can be used to more accurately assess the probability that they have cancer, compared to the assessment of the probability of cancer made without knowledge of the person’s age.
[M]emory is not entirely faithful. When you perceive an object, groups of neurons in different parts of your brain process the information about its shape, colour, smell, sound, and so on. Your brain then draws connections among these different groups of neurons, and these relationships constitute your perception of the object. Subsequently, whenever you want to remember the object, you must reconstruct these relationships. The parallel processing that your cortex does for this purpose, however, can alter your memory of the object. McGill Memory and Learning