In addition to positive signals, there are also negative or inhibitory signals which indicate that a certain pattern is less likely to exist. These can come from lower conceptual levels (for example, the recognition of a mustache will inhibit the likelihood that a person I see in the checkout line is my wife), or from a higher level (for example, I know that my wife is on a trip, so the person in the checkout line can’t be she). When a pattern recognizer receives an inhibitory signal, it raises the recognition threshold, but it is still possible for the pattern to fire (so if the person in
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