Concept hierarchy memory model: a neural architecture for conceptual knowledge representation, learning, and commonsense reasoning

This article introduces a neural network based cognitive architecture termed Concept Hierarchy Memory Model (CHMM) for conceptual knowledge representation and commonsense reasoning. CHMM is composed of two subnetworks: a Concept Formation Network (CFN), that acquires concepts based on their sensory representations; and a Concept Hierarchy Network (CHN), that encodes hierarchical relationships between concepts. Based on Adaptive Resonance Associative Map (ARAM), a supervised Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) model, CHMM provides a systematic treatment for concept formation and organization of a concept hierarchy. Specifically, a concept can be learned by sampling activities across multiple sensory fields. By chunking relations between concepts as cognitive codes, a concept hierarchy can be learned/modified through experience. Also, fuzzy relations between concepts can now be represented in terms of the weights on the links connecting them. Using a unified inferencing mechanism based on code firing, CHMM performs an important class of commonsense reasoning, including concept recognition and property inheritance.