that prototypes are complete representations of a stimulus. The prototype need not be something that has been previously seen -- for example it might be an average or amalgam of previous stimuli. Crucially, an exact match is not needed. An example of prototype matching would be to look at an animal such as a tiger and instead of recognizing that it has features that match the definition of a tiger (template matching), recognizing that it's similar to a particular mental image one has of a tiger (prototype matching). This type of pattern recognition can result in apophenia based on the fact that since the brain is not looking for exact matches, it can pick up some characteristics of a match and assume it fits. This is more common with pareidolia than data collection. Feature analysis The stimulus is first broken down into its features and then processed. This model of pattern recognition says that the processing goes through four stages: detection, pattern dissection, feature comparison in memory, and recognition. Evolution One of the explanations put forth by evolutionary psychologists for apophenia is that it is not a flaw in the cognition of human brains but rather something that has come about through years of need. The study of this topic is referred to as error management theory. One of the most accredited studies in this field is Skinner's box. This experiment involved taking a hungry pigeon, placing it in a box and releasing food pellets at random times. The pigeon received a food pellet while performing some action; and so, rather than attributing the arrival of the pellet to randomness, the pigeon repeats that action, and continues to do so until another pellet falls. As the pigeon increases the number of times it performs the action, it gains the impression that it also increased the times it was "rewarded" with a pellet, although the release in fact remained entirely random. In art Literature William Gibson's Pattern Recognition Jorge Luis Borges's Library of Babel Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice Peter Watts's Blindsight Vladimir Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" Samuel R. Delany's "Dhalgren" John Gardner's Grendel Films The Number 23 (2007) 23 (1998) A Beautiful Mind (film) (2001) Pi (film) (1998) Music Dark Side of the Rainbow See also Alignments of random points Anthropomorphism Causality Confirmation bias False equivalence Ideas and delusions of reference Ideomotor phenomenon Magical thinking Pareidolia