Inference

Abstract

Now consider a second, and similar, human capacity: the ability to relate different objects together, to associate them. Thus, we not only classify, order and sort our lumpy environment, but we tend to see the classes as coming together in packages. One potent way of learning to see these connections is by experiencing them as temporally adjacent. If y closely follows x, if, for instance, pain follows the investigation of fire, then it doesn’t take us very long to construct a link and to suppose that fire is painful. Much of our learning is of this sort. We see classifications as being sequentially related, as being connected in one way or another. Another way in which we link classifications is to notice that they are spatially adjacent. Husbands go with wives, small boys go with dirt and noise. To repeat, we are endowed with a natural capacity to link classes of events together, to cross-classify.