Exemplars

=Exemplars=
 * Exemplars** are undisputed examples.

Exemplars can provide both positive and negative or "contra" examples. For example, here are a number of exemplars:
 * Balance sheet with a noncontrolling interest
 * Balance sheet WITHOUT noncontrolling interest
 * Income statement with EVERYTHING (With preferred stock, noncontrolling interest, discontinued operations, extraordinary items, equity method investments)
 * Income statement with MINIMUM (__No__ preferred stock, __no__ noncontrolling interest, __no__ discontinued operations, __no__ extraordinary items, __no__ equity method investments)
 * Income statement with MINIMUM, plus noncontrolling interest
 * Income statement with MINIMUM, plus noncontrolling interest, organized as a flat list
 * Income statement with MINIMUM, plus noncontrolling interest and discontinued operations
 * Income statement with MINIMUM, plus preferred dividends
 * Cash flow statement with NO DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS (i.e. only continuing operations)
 * Cash flow statement with discontinued operations, option 1 (discontinued operations reported grouped with continuing by section)
 * Cash flow statement with discontinued operations, option 2 (discontinued operations reported as a separate line item below all continuing opearations)
 * QUESTIONABLE: Cash flow statement (Continuing cash flows not distinctly articulated)
 * CONTRA EXAMPLE: Cash flow statement, exchange gains in the wrong location (Roll up of exchange gains is incorrect)

There are three similar terms, each one referencing the other. Reading all three gives you a really good idea of what an exemplar is and why these might be quite useful for the creation of SEC XBRL financial filings or other digital financial reports.
 * Exemplar: A model or pattern to be copied or imitated. A typical example or instance. An original or archetype.
 * Archetype: The original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
 * Prototype: The original or model on which something is based or formed. Someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar.

Another way to think about exemplars is from the perspective of something like the AICPA's Accounting Trends and Techniques.

Fundamental understanding of prototype theory and exemplars
Fundamentally there are two perspectives to understanding what something is. Aristotle's definition view perspective was that "A thing is a member of a category if it satisfies the definition of the thing." The second perspective, **prototype theory**, is that we can know what something means even if it can't be clearly defined and even if its boundaries cannot be sharply drawn; concepts can be clear without having clear definitions if they're organized around undisputed examples, or prototypes, as Eleanor Rosch the inventor of prototype theory calls them.

As an example, one can understand that something is a "chair" by understanding as many properties as possible about the thing you are looking at, looking at the properties of a chair as defined by a prototype (the undisputed example), and then predicting whether the thing you are looking at is a "chair" by comparing the properties you are looking at with the properties of a chair. By contrast, the definitional view "draws sharp lines" whereas the prototype view works because "things can be sort of, kind of in a category. Prototype theory relies on our implicit understanding and does not assume that we can even make that understanding explicitly.

Rather than relying on a single prototype, we can also represent a category by storing many or all known **exemplars** of the category. **Exemplar** models can preserve information about the correlation of different features within a category.

Prototype theory and exemplars are two different approaches to achieving the same thing, understanding as to what something is. Both can be used as examples of how to create information and for the analysis of information.