Organization by rules in finite sequences (Q1184255)

Effective perceptual or cognitive organization seems likely to depend on mechanisms that are able to encode patterns based upon some simple set of rules. This paper considers the case where the patterns arise in finite sequences of symbols. The author introduces the notion of a ``structuration'' which is a configuration of rules that encode the patterns appearing in the string. The rules lead in a natural way to a hierarchy of structures on the string. That the structuring method is plausible is illustrated with examples drawn from vision and music. Implementation of the ideas in a realistic situation will require some work on reducing the amount of search that is required to find the simplest pattern.