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The context of an event includes the circumstances and conditions which "surround" it; the context of a word, sentence, or longer utterance or text includes the words that "surround" it.

  • In communications and linguistics, context is the meaning of a message (such as a sentence), its relationship to other parts of the message (such as a book), the environment in which the communication occurred, and any perceptions which may be associated with the communication. Thus, context is a "frame" through which one views a message.
  • In computer science, context is the circumstances under which a device is being used, e.g. the current occupation of the user. (see also context awareness, context switch).
  • In Artificial Intelligence, context is very much related to its properties in communications, linguistics and philosophy. Research is being performed about how these aspects can be modelled in computer systems (e.g. logic-based) for use in automated reasoning.
  • In Psychology, context refers to the background stimuli that accompany some kind of foreground event. For example, if a rat is foraging and is frightened by a cat, the place (and possibly time) of foraging is the context and the cat is the foreground event. There seems to be a specialized neural structure, the hippocampus, for the processing of some kinds of context.

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