Representing Domain Knowledge by Concept Maps: How to Validate Them?

For one and the same domain several alternative concept maps may exist, originating from different world views or purposes. Some of these concept maps may be valid, however not all of them. Thus, strategies for empirically and objectively validating concept maps in the respective context are necessary. We outline two methodological approaches for empirically validating concept maps, one for giving evidence of content validity and one for application validity. One procedure is to validate a given concept map with concept maps systematically generated by others. As a second method we suggest to observe the behaviour and the performance in a relevant situational context as a validation criterion. In this scope, a method for predicting persons’ problem solving behaviour by using a given concept map is outlined. In general, the purpose and ultimate use of a given concept map has to be taken into consideration for choosing a validation procedure and interpreting its results.