The Potential of Recognizing Patterns for Searching

One possibility is to supply the symbol system with a rich body of semantic information about the task domain it is dealing with. A few exploratory efforts have been made to transport information from its context of origin to other appropriate contexts. The possibility of substituting recognition for search arises because a rare pattern can contain enormous amounts of information when that structure is irregular and not subject to simple mathematical description. Knowledge of a large number of relevant patterns may be the key to intelligent behavior. Whether this is so in any particular task domain is more easily settled by empirical investigation than by theory.