Cognitive Informatics and other forms?

Over the past couple of months I've posted on topics that include an example of Hodges' model related to the post's particular theme. In McGonigle and Mastrian's Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge, Second Edition (2012) on page 63 the editors cite Wang (2003):

Cognitive informatics attempts to solve problems in two connected areas in a bidirectional and multidisciplinary approach. In one direction, CI uses informatics and computing techniques to investigate cognitive science problems, such as memory, learning and reasoning; in the other direction, CI uses cognitive theories to investigate problems in informatics, computing and software engineering (p.120). 

I will leave it to you to consider the INTRA-INTERPERSONAL and SCIENCES domains, and not (just) how Wang's cognitive informatics 'fits' within Hodges' model, but what of the many other informatics fields. Here they seem like stepping stones, but taken together where do they lead to, from, ... about ...?


Wang, Y. (2003), Cognitive Informatics: A New Transdisciplinary Research Field, Brain and Mind: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Neuroscience and Neurophilosophy, Vol.4, No.2. pp.115-127.  

A book chapter: Spatial semantics - definitions...

This book would appear to be an essential reference in respect of h2cm, the following is from chapter 13:

Spatial semantics is the study of the meaning of spatial language, but what is to be regarded as ‘spatial language’? A moment’s reflection suffices to show that the answer to this question is anything but trivial, since SPACE is not a self-contained ‘semantic field’, but rather constitutes an important part of the background for all conceptualization and meaning (Kant [1787] 1964). Furthermore, the term ‘space’ has been used all too often in an extended, metaphorical sense in Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Science, e.g., ‘Space Grammar’ (Langacker 1982), ‘Mental Spaces’ (Fauconnier 1985), ‘Conceptual Spaces’ (Gärdenfors 2000). Hence, an unrestricted interpretation of the term ‘space’ might lead us to think that ‘all semantics is spatial semantics’, a conclusion that not even cognitive linguists would find too attractive. Therefore, the scope of spatial semantics needs to be restricted, and this can and has been done in at least three different ways: by form class, by semantic category, and by communicative function. The three definitions based on these restrictions do not coincide, however, and each leaves something to be desired.

Jordan Zlatev (2007) Spatial Semantics, Chapter 13. In. Hubert Cuyckens and Dirk Geeraerts (eds.) Handbook in Cognitive Linguistics. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

DTMD 2013 & Three different perspectives on a model

I am really looking forward to next week's the Difference That Makes a Difference an interdisciplinary workshop on Information: Space, Time, and Identity at the The Open University and the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK. 

There's a session of instant interest to me as it refers to Peter Gärdenfors' work on conceptual spaces -

Session 1: Information and Space

Spacification: How to design and construct spaces
that can enhance artistic experiences

Ambjörn Naeve (KTH, Sweden) and Carl Smith (London Metropolitan University, UK)

Naeve and Smith provide a further reference:

A (conceptual) model is a description of the most important concepts and their respective relationships within a certain domain of interest. Whatever domain of interest that you focus on, your model will consist of (conceptually simplified) parts that interact with each other in some way. This leads to three different types of models:

1. The static model describes WHAT the (most important) parts are about.
2. The dynamic model describes HOW these parts interact with each other.
3. The intentional model describes WHY they display this behavior.

As we will see, these modeling types can often be mixed into a single model, and then these different types should be thought of more as “aspects” or “perspectives” of the model.

Ref: Ambjörn Naeve. 2011-01-31. A Modeling Primary on Methods and Techniques for Communicative Modeling and Disagreement Management. European Commission Seventh Framework Project (IST-257822).

Cognitive continua ( ... just a sentence of promise)

The idea of a cognitive continuum has much to offer nurses and its potential has yet to be fully exploited. p.136.


Thompson, C. (2001) JAN Forum: Clinical decision making in nursing: theoretical perspectives and their relevance to practice - a response to Jean Harbison. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(1), 134-137.

Peter Gärdenfors - "Actions and events modelled in conceptual spaces"

The Barcelona Cognition, Brain and Technology summer school. Barcelona, Spain

Friday, 14 September, 2012 - 09:30 to 11:00

Recording of the speaker's talk at the Barcelona Brain and Technology Summer School, September 2012.
"Actions and events are central to a semantics of natural language. I present a cognitively based model of these notions. After giving a general presentation of the theory of conceptual spaces, I suggest how the analysis of perceptual concepts can be extended to actions and events. First, I argue that action space can be analyzed in the same way as e.g. color space or shape space. The hypothesis is that the categorization of actions depends, to a large extent, on the perception of forces. In line with this, I describe an action as a pattern of forces. An action category is identified as a convex region of action space. I review some indirect evidence for this representation. Second, I represent an event as an interaction between a force vector and a result vector. Typically an agent performs an action – i.e., exerts a force – that changes the properties of the patient. Such a model of events is suitable for an analysis of the semantics of verbs. I compare the model to other related attempts from cognitive semantics."

Additional links:
http://www.ht.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=21232&p=PeterGardenfors
Conceptual Spaces At Work - Conference May 2012

Related posts on W2tQ

Semantic Web journal Special Issue on Cognitive Science and the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web journal invites paper submissions for a special issue on "Cognitive Approaches for the Semantic Web." The scope of the special issue includes research from cognitive science that employs Semantic Web technologies, ontologies, or Linked Data as well as semantic web research that takes inspiration from Cognitive Science findings and methods. We also invite work from domains that would benefit from a closer integration of cognitive science methods into the Semantic Web such as the digital humanities, bioinformatics, and GIScience. Submitted research may address a variety of topics including (but not limited to) reasoning, information retrieval and integration, personalization, context, patterns, user interfaces, spatial cognition, and learning. All standard paper types from the Semantic Web journal may be submitted (research paper, survey paper, tool/system paper, dataset description paper, application report, ontology description - see http://www.semantic-web-journal.org/authors ). In addition, we invite vision and position papers of the highest quality, which will be evaluated as to their potential to stimulate research investigations on the interplay between Cognitive Science and Semantic Web.

Deadlines

Paper submission deadline: January 10, 2013
Notification: March 10, 2013

Editors of the special issue:

Rob Goldstone (Indiana University, Bloomington, US)
Frank van Harmelen (VU Amsterdam, NL)
Pascal Hitzler (Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University, Dayton, US)
Krzysztof Janowicz (University of California, Santa Barbara, US)
Kai-Uwe Kühnberger (Universität Osnabrück, DE)

Guest editorial board (to be completed)

Benjamin Adams (University of California, Santa Barbara, US)
Claudia d'Amato (University of Bari, IT)
Alan Bundy (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Jérôme Euzenat (INRIA Rhône-Alpes, FR)
Helmar Gust (Universität Osnabrück, DE)
Cory Henson (Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University, Dayton, US)
Zhisheng Huang (VU Amsterdam, NL)
Werner Kuhn (Universität Münster, DE)
Alexander Mehler (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, DE)
Simon Scheider (Universität Münster, DE)
Christoph Schlieder (Universität Bamberg, DE)
Lael Schooler (MPI für Bildungsforschung, DE)
Wei Lee Woon (Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, AE)
Gudrun Ziegler (DICA-lab, University of Luxembourg, LU)
...

Contact: If you have questions, please contact us via contact @ semantic-web-journal.net .

-- Prof. Dr. Pascal Hitzler
Dept. of Computer Science, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
http://www.knoesis.org/pascal/
Semantic Web Textbook: http://www.semantic-web-book.org
Semantic Web Journal: http://www.semantic-web-journal.net

PJ's project [iii]: Hodges' model An aide mémoire, or candidate Gärdenforsian conceptual space?

If you have a 'project' then chances are at some point you're going to commit it to paper as a text or Gantt chart...

Last November I posted an outline and some reflections about a project that I suppose has been a career in the making. This blog is part of the 'output': a channel that is open.

I am writing this in Lund, Sweden. The people, weather, the lilac and other scents on the breeze are a real joy. I'm here to attend the Conceptual Spaces at Work conference which starts tomorrow.

Part of the rationale for attending is to see if I've found a tree worthy of stressing my vocal cords over. If you compare the copy below with November then some changes should be apparent. For example, I wasn't aware of CSML back then. This conference is not so much about trying to fill in gaps, but finding them. Here is the latest listing:

Abstract
    Preface
    Introduction
    1.1 Health and Social Care
    1.2 Recurring Issues in Health and Social Care
    2 Education
     Introduction
    2.1 Education in the 21st Century
    2.2 Recurring Issues in Education
    3 Nursing, Nursing Theory and Hodges' model
    Introduction
    3.1 Sciences, Medicine and Nursing Disciplines
    3.2 Scope of Nursing Practice
    3.3 The case for models of care: Simplification, speech, writing
    3.4 Nursing Process
    3.5 Data Initialisation In Nursing
    3.6 Nursing Theory : All In The Mind?
    3.7 Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
    3.8 Problems With Models - Critique
    3.9 Problems with Hodges' health career – care domains – model
    4 Information
    Introduction
    4.1 Information, energy, records
    4.2 Clinical Classification and Coding
    5 Cognitive Science, Learning and Literacy, Computation
    Introduction
    5.1 Cognitive and Learning styles
    5.2 Models, Contexts, Situations, the Project and (Darwinian) Justification
    5.3 Forms of Literacy, Requirements and Socio-Technical Perspectives
    5.4 Computation and Computer Graphics
    5.5 Visual Software
    5.6 Software Development, data, models, applications
    5.7 Data Abstraction and Databases
    5.8 Object Oriented Programming
    5.9 Coding and Classification, Ontologies, RDF, Semantic Web
    6 Gardenfors' Conceptual Spaces
    Introduction
    6.1 Representation, Explanation and Construction
    6.2 Background on key research methods
    6.3 Gärdenfors conceptual spaces - selected definitions
    7 Hodges' model as a Conceptual Space
    Introduction
    7.1 Indicative Literature Review
    7.2 H2CM, Data, Data, Data, (Data!) and research methods
    7.3 Hodges’ model as a Conceptual Space
    7.4 Quality dimensions – discrete vs continuous and confluent
    8 Sandbox: Drupal, Ruby, CSML and SVG
    Introduction
    8.1 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG): Web Graphics
    8.2 Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML)
    8.3 Drupal: Open source content management system
    8.4 Ruby
    8.5 Domains and Domain Specific Languages
    9 Closing Discussion: Values
    Introduction
    Figures
    Tables
    Acknowledgements

I would love to attend SVG Open - The Graphical Web in September, but I have to cut the cloth as a dad, boyfriend, and full-time nurse... This year, ten days unpaid leave will help me pursue this work. It's not that I can necessarily afford to sacrifice salary like this, but at present it suits the NHS and me.

As to the text there will be lots more changes to follow no doubt. Chapter 4 has latent emergent properties - I hope. One struggle is 'chapters' 1 & 2, which provide a background to healthcare and education; and the closing discussion. In C1 for example, the issues include person-centered care, multidisciplinary care, records, information. ... In a way they are also themes, it's finding the right descriptor. Actually, as I write perhaps this issues-themes thing is related to there being issues that are problems that have a solution if only we can find it?

It's a big ask, but C8 and reference to the sandbox says it all. Whether it is a case of issues, themes, or problems in nursing, health and social care it is values that count. I'm hoping there's a circle there that can be closed. Then the project really becomes a baton: and I can help pass it on ...

More to follow over the next few days.

Many thanks also to Rikard for the welcome at Hobykrok B&B and the loan of a power adapter!

Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML): Towards the Cognitive Semantic Web

I'll start May hopefully in tune with plans towards the month's end and attending Conceptual Spaces at Work.

The SCIENCES domain page has included Markup Languages (ML) for a great many years.

In the early versions of the h2cm website there were just two 'resource' pages. When the ongoing four page format arrived then markup languages had a place.

Looking at the programme for next month's Conceptual Spaces at Work the first session listed includes this reference:

Adams, B., Raubal, M. (2009). Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML): Towards the Cognitive Semantic Web. ICSC '09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA.

Abstract—CSML is a semantic markup language created for the publishing and sharing of conceptual spaces, which are geometric structures that represent semantics at the conceptual level. CSML can be used to describe semantics that are not captured well by the ontology languages commonly used in the Semantic Web. Measurement of the semantic similarity of concepts as well as the combination of concepts without shared properties are common human cognitive tasks. However, these operations present sources of difficulty for tools reliant upon set-theoretic and syllogistic reasoning on symbolic ontologies. In contrast, these operations can be modeled naturally using conceptual spaces. This paper describes the design decisions behind CSML, introduces the key component elements of a CSML document, and presents examples of its usage.

This is an excellent source. CSML is a really significant development for me as Adams and Raubal highlight on the first page:

The computational foundation of the Semantic Web is the formal representation of concepts and their relationships using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) variants [5], [6]. These families of languages allow one to describe semantic relationships between concepts and ontologies, which can be queried using a first-order logic reasoner. An underlying assumption to these methods is the realist approach to semantics, which states that the meanings of concepts are in the real world. That is, there is a direct mapping between language terms and the world but there is no consideration of how individuals understand concepts differently. In contrast, cognitive semantics states that the meanings of terms are cognitive structures in people’s minds. This approach is of central importance for the Semantic Web, because web services interface with human users.

This isn't excellent or significant in the sense that the emergence of CSML demonstrates h2cm as a conceptual space.

Far from it.

Here and for h2cm CSML is obviously an essential tool to examine, understand and possibly extend. Anyone for PHP and XML (Drupal)? Reading the paper, it's clear that even thinking of applying CSML to Hodges' model demands answers to difficult and yet fascinating questions that involve nursing (theory, practice and values), informatics, philosophy and some maths too.

CSML project
http://virunga.sourceforge.net/

Image source:
http://www.lucs.lu.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/conceptual_spaces_wordl.png

What really makes us human?

Remembering is fundamentally recursive,
because it involves inserting a past mental state
into the present one.

Michael Corballis
New Scientist, 1st September 2007 p.48-49.

How solid is the framework? Paper: Perceptual ratings of opposite spatial properties...

In researching conceptual spaces and h2cm I came across the following source:

Bianchi, I. , Savardi, U., Burro, R. (2011). Perceptual ratings of opposite spatial properties: Do they lie on the same dimension? Acta Psychologica, 138, 3, 405-418.

As constructed h2cm makes several assumptions with its axial structure. Is the placement of humanistic – mechanistic and individual – group on continua truly representative of the opposites of continua?

It seems that to address this question we must investigate cognitive linguistics. Bianchi et al., raise the following for consideration:

The idea that two contrary properties lie on the same continuum has formed the basis of various methodologies used in experimental research in the field of Psychology since the late sixties (e.g. the differential semantic method, Likert scales, etc.); however, an increasing number of methodologists are facing problems connected to the assumption of unidimensionality in opposite scales ... (p.405).

I wonder to what extent the original purposes of h2cm can support the existing continua? Nursing and the scope of nursing should also be able to substantiate the model. Nursing is person-centred. 

The idea that opposites presuppose an underlying continuum has been a default assumption in linguistics and cognitive semantics for more than two decades even though it has been noted that in every-day language people describe their perceptions in terms of opposites (“you are driving fast”, “the walk is long”, “the room is small”, “it's hot today”) instead of using unidimensional scales (respectively, velocity, size and temperature) (p.406).

Additional links:
http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/combining-h2cm-informing-science-and.html
Hodges's model