Grounded Models as a Basis for Intuitive Reasoning

This paper introduces grounded models and compares them to axiomatic models of mathematics. Grounded models differ from axiomatic theories in establishing explicit connections between language and reality that are learnt through language games. They are constructed and updated by autonomous agents connected to their environment through sensors and actuators using some conceptualization mechanisms and language games described in [Steels, 1999]. They are based on conceptualization and support a form of intuitive reasoning, which can be done sometimes by constraint satisfaction and it is argued to be the basis of some axiomatizations. This is illustrated with a simple example of spatial reasoning.