It is proposed that the cognitive system imposes patterns on the world according to a
simplicity principle: Choose the pattern that provides the briefest representation of the …

In this article, the author proposes that the search for simplicity is a fundamental goal of
cognition—and that this is an appropriate goal, not for aesthetic reasons, but in view of …

Much of perception, learning and high-level cognition involves finding patterns in data. But
there are always infinitely many patterns compatible with any finite amount of data. How …

The simplicity principle, traditionally referred to as Occam's razor, is the idea that simpler
explanations of observations should be preferred to more complex ones. In recent decades …

The distinction between rule-based and similarity-based processes in cognition is of
fundamental importance for cognitive science, and has been the focus of a large body of …

The likelihood principle states that the visual system prefers the most likely interpretation of a
stimulus, whereas the simplicity principle states that it prefers the most simple interpretation …

The study of scientific discovery—where do new ideas come from?—has long been
denigrated by philosophers as irrelevant to analyzing the growth of scientific knowledge. In …

Discusses 3 primary objections that have been made to the modeling of human intelligence
by physical symbol systems—relevance, testability, and completeness. Further research …

Two prominent ideas in the study of decision making have been that organisms behave near-
optimally, and that they use simple heuristic rules. These principles might be operating in …

A modern principle of parsimony may be stated as follows: Where we have no reason to do
otherwise and where two theories account for the same facts, we should prefer the one …