a telephone pole? After all, both have "branches" and in the winter neither one has leaves (Abu Mostata and Psaltis 92).
From the difficulties we have had trying to describe a tree in precise terms, it seems clear that we don't use a conventional computer's method of problem solving. After all, we can identify trees with or without leaves with little difficulty, and distinguish trees from other objects like telephone poles that possess many tree like characteristics. In fact, we do use a completely different method of problem solving that involves what scientists consider the key to random problem solving: associative memory (Abu Mostata and Psaltis 92). While the workings of associative memory are still a mystery for neuroscientists, its existence is undeniable; for we use it nearly every moment of our lives. Stated simply, this phenomenon is what occurs when, for instance, you see a picture of home and immediately think of your family, your dog, and your friends. When this occurs you are associating many other events and objects, ranging from the arrangement of the furniture in your bedroom to the climbing tree in the backyard, that are somehow linked in your mind to the original event, your viewing of the picture of your home ("Mimicking the Human Mind" 50).
If this doesn't seem logical at first, consider the following: if we identified faces using algorithms, the more faces we knew, the slower we would recognize people ("Mimicking the Human Mind" 52). This would happen because the algorithmic method of recognition requires us to sort through all of the faces stored in memory until we found an exact match. Obviously, though, we don't recognize Mom more slowly as we age; so a different method must be used.
This ability explains how scientists believe we attack problems in our lives; we store a vast amount of information throughout our lives and use our associative abilities to recognize the underlying similarities and pa...