[2] It is an essential component of many abilities, such as perception, language, synthetic reasoning, creative thought and abstraction.
[4] Cognitive models attempt to functionally outline the mental computation involved in conceptual combination.
This assumption makes the most sense in a practical, linguistic context, particularly when a speaker is catering to the understanding of the listener.
The paradigm upon which constraint theory is based is computational, and therefore views the mind as a processor which operates on the basis of standard problem-solving protocols (i.e. algorithms and heuristics).
Though it is typically applied to information search processes like recognition, brainstorming, and recall, it can be used to explain how concepts are combined as well as connected.
This implication, however, has caused spreading activation to come under a great deal of criticism, particularly with respect to how the concept is employed in feature theories.
In the initial stage, features from each of the component simple concepts are retrieved from memory through spreading activation.
[7] For example, one might reason that the complex concept "white jacket," if worn in a blizzard, would make one difficult to see; it would follow that one should ascribe the property of "good for winter camouflage," despite the fact that this property is not closely attached to the component concepts "white" nor "jacket."
Studies have previously demonstrated an additive effect for stimulation in this subsection of neural cortex tissue.
When experiment participants were verbally presented with certain simple concepts, the processing of the information causes electrical stimulation in the region.
[8] Further support for the role of the left anterior temporal lobe has been previously established through neuropsychological studies.
Unfortunately, neuropsychological studies that attempt to replicate this pattern have failed, leading uncertainty as to whether initial results were valid.
It states that the assumed modification effect of a noun on its partner in a novel noun-noun combination is the one which it has been seen to employ most often in the past.
"[13] Explanations of linguistic expression of complex concepts have been linked to spreading activation models.
This is consistent with current empirical data, which shows that when individuals are interpreting sentences, they process the linguistic content more quickly when several related words follow one another.
In turn, it becomes easier for people to combine these related concepts together and understand them as a relationship, rather than two distinct entities.
In this sentence, the lexical concepts "spread," "butter," and "bagel" are associated with one another and easy to combine into a mental representation of a breakfast scenario.
Because "baked" and "computer" are not related lexical concepts, it takes more effort and time to build a mental representation of this unusual scenario.
This does not rule out the possibility that social context can affect sense generation in some way, but it does assert that the basic structure of the process is unaffected.
As seen above, debate as to what sense generation entails and how many sub-processes into which it should be divided is a contentious matter in cognitive science.
[16] The anaphor resolution hypothesis instead asserts that before sense generation occurs, interpreters first search their memory of recent communication to see if the combination refers to something previously discussed.
Even if an explicit referent does not exist, anaphor resolution can help facilitate sense generation by providing more information that might hint at the combination's intended meaning.
Tools that are developed based on conceptual combination theory attempt to teach individual tasks, and then challenge students to exercise them together in order to promote both base subject skills and the critical thinking needed to apply them simultaneously to solve new problems.
Máder & Vajda, for instance, developed a three-dimensional grid with cells of adjustable height which has been successfully used in numerous activities capable of improving the effectiveness of high school mathematics education.