familial resemblance

The concept that whether or not an element is a member of a certain group may not be determined by common characteristics.

• Ludwig Wittgenstein pointed out in philosophical inquiry that concepts such as "language," "games," and "numbers" do not have features common to all their objects, but are only loosely connected as a whole by partially common features. family resemblance (Family resemblance). Wikipedia

• Westerners looking at the trees, Orienters looking at the forest p.161 Is the target in the figure similar to Group 1 or Group 2? Orientals tend to choose Group 1 and Westerners Group 2.
• Norenzayan, A., Smith, E. E., Kim, B. J., & Nisbett, R. E. (2002). Cultural preferences for formal versus intuitive reasoning. Cognitive science, 26(5), 653-684.
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Let's delve into the two ways of thinking.

Four attributes.

• Attribute 1: Target petals are round, Group 1 has 3/4 petals round, Group 2 has 1/4 petals round
• Attribute 2: Target flower center is a single circle, 3/4 of Group 1 is a single circle, 1/4 of Group 2 is a single circle
• Attribute 3: Target has leaves on it, Group 1 has leaves on 3/4, Group 2 has leaves on 1/4
• Attribute 4: Target stems are straight, Group 1 has 0/4 stems straight, Group 2 has 4/4 stems straight

In this situation, would you put the target in group 1 or group 2?

• Oriental type: the idea that since three of the four attributes indicate that "Group 1 is closer", it should be placed in Group 1.
• Western: Attributes 1-3 do not clearly separate the groups. The idea is that Attribute 4 is the criterion that separates these two groups, and if you follow that criterion, you should be placed in Group 2.

Western types can easily explain to others the reasons for their decisions. It can be made into a clear proposition: "If the stem is straight, it is group 2." On the other hand, it is vulnerable to noise. In this example, attribute 4 could cleanly separate the two groups, but if noise is introduced and even attribute 4 cannot separate the two groups, the Western type will fall into the trap of thinking, "There is no clear criterion to distinguish between the two groups. It is also vulnerable to cases where some of the attributes are unobservable. If attribute 4 happens to be unobservable, the decision is reversed.

The oriental type is resistant to noise and to unobservables. However, the reason for the decision cannot be simply explained. If we dare to explain, the rule would be: "If the petals are round, one vote for group 1; if the center of the flower is a single circle, one vote for group 1; if it has leaves, one vote for group 1; if the stem is straight, two votes for group 2. The rule is: "The group with the highest total number of votes shall be the group with the highest number of votes.

Relationship between [if statement, decision tree and logistic regression.

• Related: In [Orientalists are logistic regression and Westerners are decision trees.

Related: There is more than one conflict.

Related: Panda, monkey, banana, which one is your friend?

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/家族的類似性 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I'm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers. familial resemblance see familial resemblance

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/家族的類似 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I'm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.