An efficient feature-based connectionist inheritance scheme

A connectionist model that deals with the inheritance problem in an efficient and natural way is described. Based on the connectionist architecture CONSYDERR, the author analyses the problem of property inheritance and formulates it in ways facilitating conceptual clarity and connectionist implementation. A set of benchmarks is specified for ensuring the correctness of solution mechanisms. Parameters of CONSYDERR are formally derived to satisfy these benchmark requirements. The author also discusses how chaining of is-a links and multiple inheritance can be handled in this architecture. It is shown that CONSYDERR with a two-level dual (localist and distributed) representation can handle inheritance and cancellation of inheritance correctly and extremely efficiently, in constant time instead of proportional to the length of a chain in an inheritance hierarchy. The utility of a meaning-oriented intensional approach (with features) is demonstrated for supplementing and enhancing extensional approaches