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11 – 20 of over 63000Mauri Laukkanen and Päivi Eriksson
The paper's first objective is to develop a new conceptual framework for categorizing and designing cognitive, specifically comparative, causal mapping (CCM) research by building…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's first objective is to develop a new conceptual framework for categorizing and designing cognitive, specifically comparative, causal mapping (CCM) research by building upon the theory‐centred and participant‐centred perspectives. The second purpose is to enable the discerned study prototypes by introducing a new CCM software application, CMAP3.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon the distinction between theory‐centred (etic) and participant‐centred (emic) perspectives in social research, we first construct and apply a conceptual framework for analysing and categorising extant CCM studies in terms of their objectives and basic design. Next, after noting the important role and basic tasks in computerising causal mapping studies, we present a new CCM software application.
Findings
The theory‐centred/participant‐centred perspectives define four causal mapping study prototypes, each with different goals, basic designs and methodological requirements. Noting the present lack of widely accessible software for qualitatively oriented CCM studies, we introduce CMAP3, a new non‐commercial Windows application, and summarise how it is used in related research.
Originality/value
The framework and the studies representing the prototypes demonstrate the versatility of CCM methods and that the proposed framework offers a new, systematic approach to categorising and designing CCM studies. Research technically, CMAP3 can support the defined CCM‐prototypes, based on a low‐structured (inductive/qualitative) or a structured (nomothetic/quantitative) methodological approach/stance, and having therefore different needs of data acquisition, processing, coding, aggregation/comparison, and analysis of the emerging aggregated cause maps’ contents or structure.
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Chunxiu Qin, Pengwei Zhao, Jian Mou and Jin Zhang
Browsing knowledge documents in a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment is difficult because knowledge documents in such an environment are large in quantity and distributed over…
Abstract
Purpose
Browsing knowledge documents in a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment is difficult because knowledge documents in such an environment are large in quantity and distributed over different peers who organize the documents according to their own views. This paper aims to propose a method for constructing a personal knowledge map for a peer to facilitate knowledge browsing and alleviate information overload in P2P environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The research presents a method for constructing a personal knowledge map. The method adopts an ontology-concept-tree-based classification algorithm to recognize a peer’s personal knowledge structure and construct a personal knowledge map, and uses a self-organizing map algorithm to cluster and visualize the knowledge documents. The correctness of the created knowledge map is evaluated with a collection of abstracts of academic papers.
Findings
The method for constructing a personal knowledge map is the main finding of this research. The evaluation shows that the created knowledge map is good in quality.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed method provides a way for P2P platforms to understand their users’ knowledge background, as well as to improve the P2P platform environment. However, the proposed method will not help a peer when he has nothing in his individual knowledge document repository (i.e. the “cold start” problem). The method also requires a relatively good ontology base for a P2P document sharing system to use the method effectively.
Originality/value
It is novel that the proposed method organizes the knowledge documents related to a peer’s knowledge background into a personal knowledge map. Moreover, the created knowledge map combines the advantages of a hierarchical display and a map display. It has values for a distributed P2P environment to facilitate users’ knowledge browsing and to alleviate information overload.
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Ching‐Chieh Kiu and Chien‐Sing Lee
The purpose of this paper is to present an automated ontology mapping and merging algorithm, namely OntoDNA, which employs data mining techniques (FCA, SOM, K‐means) to resolve…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an automated ontology mapping and merging algorithm, namely OntoDNA, which employs data mining techniques (FCA, SOM, K‐means) to resolve ontological heterogeneities among distributed data sources in organizational memory and subsequently generate a merged ontology to facilitate resource retrieval from distributed resources for organizational decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
The OntoDNA employs unsupervised data mining techniques (FCA, SOM, K‐means) to resolve ontological heterogeneities to integrate distributed data sources in organizational memory. Unsupervised methods are needed as an alternative in the absence of prior knowledge for managing this knowledge. Given two ontologies that are to be merged as the input, the ontologies' conceptual pattern is discovered using FCA. Then, string normalizations are applied to transform their attributes in the formal context prior to lexical similarity mapping. Mapping rules are applied to reconcile the attributes. Subsequently, SOM and K‐means are applied for semantic similarity mapping based on the conceptual pattern discovered in the formal context to reduce the problem size of the SOM clusters as validated by the Davies‐Bouldin index. The mapping rules are then applied to discover semantic similarity between ontological concepts in the clusters and the ontological concepts of the target ontology are updated to the source ontology based on the merging rules. Merged ontology in a concept lattice is formed.
Findings
In experimental comparisons between PROMPT and OntoDNA ontology mapping and merging tool based on precision, recall and f‐measure, average mapping results for OntoDNA is 95.97 percent compared to PROMPT's 67.24 percent. In terms of recall, OntoDNA outperforms PROMPT on all the paired ontology except for one paired ontology. For the merging of one paired ontology, PROMPT fails to identify the mapping elements. OntoDNA significantly outperforms PROMPT due to the utilization of FCA in the OntoDNA to capture attributes and the inherent structural relationships among concepts. Better performance in OntoDNA is due to the following reasons. First, semantic problems such as synonymy and polysemy are resolved prior to contextual clustering. Second, unsupervised data mining techniques (SOM and K‐means) have reduced problem size. Third, string matching performs better than PROMPT's linguistic‐similarity matching in addressing semantic heterogeneity, in context it also contributes to the OntoDNA results. String matching resolves concept names based on similarity between concept names in each cluster for ontology mapping. Linguistic‐similarity matching resolves concept names based on concept‐representation structure and relations between concepts for ontology mapping.
Originality/value
The OntoDNA automates ontology mapping and merging without the need of any prior knowledge to generate a merged ontology. String matching is shown to perform better than linguistic‐similarity matching in resolving concept names. The OntoDNA will be valuable for organizations interested in merging ontologies from distributed or different organizational memories. For example, an organization might want to merge their organization‐specific ontologies with community standard ontologies.
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Dongmei Han, Wen Wang, Suyuan Luo, Weiguo Fan and Songxin Wang
This paper aims to apply vector space model (VSM)-PCR model to compute the similarity of Fault zone ontology semantics, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to apply vector space model (VSM)-PCR model to compute the similarity of Fault zone ontology semantics, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of VSM-PCR method in uncertainty mapping of ontologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first define the concept of uncertainty ontology and then propose the method of ontology mapping. The proposed method fully considers the properties of ontology in measuring the similarity of concept. It expands the single VSM of concept meaning or instance set to the “meaning, properties, instance” three-dimensional VSM and uses membership degree or correlation to express the level of uncertainty.
Findings
It provides a relatively better accuracy which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of VSM-PCR method in treating the uncertainty mapping of ontology.
Research limitations/implications
The future work will focus on exploring the similarity measure and combinational methods in every dimension.
Originality/value
This paper presents an uncertain mapping method of ontology concept based on three-dimensional combination weighted VSM, namely, VSM-PCR. It expands the single VSM of concept meaning or instance set to the “meaning, properties, instance” three-dimensional VSM. The model uses membership degree or correlation which is used to express the degree of uncertainty; as a result, a three-dimensional VSM is obtained. The authors finally provide an example to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of VSM-PCR method in treating the uncertainty mapping of ontology.
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This chapter’s focus is comparative causal mapping (CCM) methods in MOC research. For a background, the chapter discusses first the conceptual (cognitive theoretic) basis in…
Abstract
This chapter’s focus is comparative causal mapping (CCM) methods in MOC research. For a background, the chapter discusses first the conceptual (cognitive theoretic) basis in typical CCM studies and its implications for understanding the target phenomena and for CCM methods. Next, it presents the CMAP3 software and describes its operating logic and main functions. Third, the chapter describes how to use CMAP3 in three prototypical cases of CCM, each characterized by different research objectives, kinds of data, and methods of data acquisition but also by potential dilemmas. The chapter concludes by speculating about the future directions of causal mapping and suggesting some ideas for developing in particular large-N CCM methods.
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Michael S. Rugh, Donald J. Beyette, Mary Margaret Capraro and Robert M. Capraro
The purpose of this study is to examine a week-long science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) activity that integrates a new educational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine a week-long science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) activity that integrates a new educational technology and the engineering design process to teach middle and high school students the concepts involved in rotational physics. The technology and teaching method described in this paper can be applied to a wide variety of STEM content areas.
Design/methodology/approach
As an educational technology, the dynamic and interactive mathematical expressions (DIME) map system automatically generates an interactive, connected concept map of mathematically based concepts extracted from a portable document format textbook chapter. Over five days, students used DIME maps to engage in meaningful self-guided learning within the engineering design process and STEM PBL.
Findings
Using DIME maps within a STEM PBL activity, students explored the physics behind spinning objects, proposed multiple creative designs and built a variety of spinners to meet specified criteria and constraints.
Practical implications
STEM teachers can use DIME maps and STEM PBL to support their students in making connections between what they learn in the classroom and real-world scenarios.
Social implications
For any classroom with computers, tablets or phones and an internet connection, DIME maps are an accessible educational technology that provides an alternative representation of knowledge for learners who are underserved by traditional methods of instruction.
Originality/value
For STEM teachers and education researchers, the activity described in this paper uses advances in technology (DIME maps and slow-motion video capture on cell phones) and pedagogy (STEM PBL and the engineering design process) to enable students to engage in meaningful learning.
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This paper examines the issues and barriers that inhibit faculty from using technology in instruction. It uses the diffusion and adoption theory as a means to understand and…
Abstract
This paper examines the issues and barriers that inhibit faculty from using technology in instruction. It uses the diffusion and adoption theory as a means to understand and explain how individuals and organisations react when an innovation is introduced into their environment. The framework proposed combines the empirical data from research using concept mapping with the theoretical factors identified from the literature to create a structured process that identifies the priority issues and barriers to technology adoption. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were used to analyse the data gathered from the brainstorming session. A barrier definition and classification scheme was created and used to connect issues to barriers of adoption. Descriptive mixed methods approach was also used to develop a pictorial multivariate conceptual framework for understanding the relationships between issues and barriers to adopting instructional technology. Findings suggest that as a higher education institution in the early adoption phase of using instructional technology approaches critical mass of faculty users, it must address the issues of the critical mass, in order for the mainstream faculty to see the utility in the use of instructional technology in the classroom. This research lays the foundation for further research into the development of a systematic process or approach for managing the diffusion and adoption of technology in instruction at an institute of higher education.
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Kim Tallerås, Jørn Helge B. Dahl and Nils Pharo
Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user…
Abstract
Purpose
Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps are identified and analyzed statistically.
Findings
The study shows that the participants’ conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those (the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node. These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a shared fictional world.
Originality/value
The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.
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Although the ideas of F.W. Taylor have profoundly marked the twentieth century, they do not seem to have been understood in the same way by the people who have studied them. Aims…
Abstract
Although the ideas of F.W. Taylor have profoundly marked the twentieth century, they do not seem to have been understood in the same way by the people who have studied them. Aims to enrich our understanding of the ideas of this remarkable author. Proposes a graphic representation of Taylor’s thinking in the form of a cognitive map. Then analyses the structure and content of the map using the Decision Explorer software package. Most of the concepts and links shown in the map were drawn from “Shop management”, and the remainder were taken from The Principles of Scientific Management. The results highlight the relative importance of the concepts used by Taylor, the dimensions on which he more or less consciously structured his thinking, together with the characteristics of the concepts he considered basically as “explanations” or “consequences”, and the more or less systemic or circular logic that guided him in the organization of his thinking. Discusses the limitations of the results and some future avenues for research.
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Geoffrey W. Goodhew, Peter A. Cammock and Robert T. Hamilton
To explore the relationship between managers' cognitive maps and their performance as managers at the same level in the same organisation.Design/methodology/approach – Field study…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the relationship between managers' cognitive maps and their performance as managers at the same level in the same organisation.Design/methodology/approach – Field study involving 30 branch managers in a financial services organisation operating in New Zealand. A nomthetic approach was used to develop their cognitive maps. Features of these maps were then related to business‐unit performance.Findings – The managers who were higher performing have maps that were considerably simpler, using fewer concepts and fewer linkages.Research limitations/implications/future research – While limited to one organisation and to one level of management, there is evidence that cognition is related to managers' performance. Future research should explore how cognitive structures differ between managerial levels, and how these are related to appropriate measures of performance.Originality/value – One of few studies that have sought to map managers' cognition and organisation performance.
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