ABSTRACT
In other chapters in this volume we have described the use of knowledge structures to make sense of the world around us. An event is understood and explained by finding the knowledge structure or combination of structures that best fit it, and building a causal explanation of those aspects of the event that deviate from the fit. In addition to this knowledge-structure based understanding, an important source of information for these prediction and explanation processes is also found in the individual instances of a type of event. In the following examples, a particular experience retrieved from memory provides information not available in the generalizations encoded in a knowledge structure:
“Let's try the Hunan Wok again. Last time we went there, the food was really good, especially the fried dumplings.”
A: “Oh no, the line at the ticket booth is really long, we might miss the train.”
B: “Don't worry. I remember once before when the line was this long, someone told us we could buy the ticket on the train and it worked out okay.”
“This is the same error message I got on that program I wrote yesterday. I better check to see that I updated the counter correctly.”
