ABSTRACT
We discuss the role of computational temperature in Copycat, a computer model of the mental mechanisms underlying human concepts and analogy-making. In Copycat, computational temperature is used both to measure the amount and quality of perceptual organization created by the program as processing proceeds, and, reciprocally, to continuously control the degree of randomness in the system. We discuss these roles in two aspects of perception central to Copycat's behavior: (1) the emergence of a parallel terraced scan, in which many possible courses of action are explored simultaneously, each at a speed and to a depth proportional to moment-to-moment estimates of its promise, and (2) the ability to restructure initial perceptions — sometimes radically — in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of a situation. We compare our notion of temperature to similar notions in other computational frameworks. Finally, we give an example of how temperature is used in Copycat's creation of a subtle and insightful analogy.
