Frame (artificial intelligence)

Frames were proposed by Marvin Minsky in his 1974 article "A Framework for Representing Knowledge." A frame is an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations." Frames are connected together to form a complete idea.

Frame structure
The frame contains information on how to use the frame, what to expect next, and what to do when these expectations are not met. Some information in the frame is generally unchanged while other information, stored in "terminals," usually change. Different frames may share the same terminals.

A frame's terminals are already filled with default values, which is based on how the human mind works. For example, when a person is told "a boy kicks a ball," most people will be able to visualize a particular ball (such as a familiar soccer ball) rather than imagining some abstract ball with no attributes.