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That happens because the probability that O observes a behaviour consistent with
its concept is very low, since
p(a1)
and
p(a2)
are small. Thus, in general, concepts
tend to weaken, which in turn makes it more probable that the coefficients will keep
decreasing throughout the run. Conceptually, this is equivalent to concepts that are
not useful to generate agreement in a social group, and rapidly die out.
4.2
Convergence to One
When both
p(a1)
and
p(a2)
are set to large values, for example
p(a1)
= 0.8 and
p(a2)
= 0.9, then the coefficients quickly increase and take values close to 1.0. This can be
seen in Figure 2.
Fig. 2.
Mean of coefficients of concepts (c1 through c5), for
p(a1)
= 0.8 and
p(a2)
= 0.9
Contrary to what happened in 4.1, in this situation
p(a1)
and
p(a2)
are large, thus
favouring that O observes a behaviour consistent with its concept, which will
strengthen the coefficient. In turn, this makes more probable that in successive cycles,
all the coefficients of the concepts will increase. Conceptually, this is equivalent to a
group of related concepts synergistically increasing their relevance by promoting
agreement in culture.
4.3
Bifurcation
Using different combinations for
p(a1)
and
p(a2)
, such as (0.20, 0.80), (0.60, 0.40),
(0.80, 0.16), we saw that some concepts tended to strengthen and others to weaken.
We labelled this type of dynamic a “bifurcation”, which is shown in Figure 3.
Under this condition, a relatively large value of
p(a1)
or
p(a2)
, but not of both of
them, will promote that on each run some O's observe behaviours consistent with
their concepts. However, since
p(a1)
or
p(a2)
will have a small value, it will also
happen that on each run some O's will not observe behaviours consistent with their
concepts. Thus, some versions of the concept will strengthen and others weaken in
