Generalization of the Process of Feature Comparison: Set Theory, Neural Systems

Abstract

Judgments are feature comparison processes between stimuli and frames of reference (concepts, categories, memory structures). A generalization of this process leads to the empirical foundation of a scale for stimuli with qualitative features (a, b, c…) and a scale for stimuli with quantitative features (a, aa, aaa…). The first scale illustrates the feature comparison process of perception and judgment. The scale for stimuli with quantitative features is primarily a scale for physical measurement. The best theoretical basis of similarity judgments is a set-theoretical approach because set theory can be related to structures and processes of the nervous system. This is shown at the level of single neurons, cell assemblies, and detectors of elementary visual features. In the second part of the chapter, memory structures and underlying neural systems are analyzed, which are essentially involved in processes of self-regulation. This includes the prefrontal cortex, the neural structures, and processes that underlie declarative memory and judgment, and neural systems involved in decision-making.