This is actually a comment on the story telling thread. The reason why
story telling is effective is explained well in Roger Schank's book,
"Tell Me A Story". Schank, a AI professor, argues that Knowledge is
Stories" - the title of the first chapter. In his long study of human
memory, he shows it is organized mosty into episodes. Episodes are
sometime cross connected to each other in themes. For example, this type
of association is how we know the Romeo and Juliet is the same as West
Side Story.
For people interested in why stories work, and howpeoples mind comprehend
things and learn, I recommend Schank's books.
-- Mel Dickover <dickover@umd5.umd.edu>