Interpreting a novel modifier-noun phrase (e.g, licorice guitar) involves both the conceptual and lexical systems; one must access the concepts denoted by the words and select a relation (e.g., noun MADE OF modifier) to form a unified conceptual representation. We describe recent empirical work that demonstrates that the ease of interpreting a novel noun phrase is influenced by the availability...

Traditional 3d modeling software utilizes a complex interface that restricts free conceptual thinking. We have developed an alternative approach that is based on making marks with the body in space. This simplified interface reduces cognitive overhead, enhancing the conceptual development of geometric shapes. This system uses the Responsive Workbench to display geometry in the space of the user...

We attempt to validate the conceptual framework “Physics of Notation” (PoN) as a means for analysing visual languages by applying it to UML Use Case Diagrams. We discover that the PoN, in its current form, is neither precise nor comprehensive enough to be applied in an objective way to analyse practical visual software engineering notations. We propose an operationalization of a part of the PoN...

Simple conceptual graphs can be seen as a very basic description logic, allowing however for answering conjunctive queries. In the first part of this paper, we translate some results obtained for conceptual graph rules of form “if A then B” into an equivalent DL-based formalism. Then we show that, our algorithms can automatically decide in some cases whether a given DL has the FOL-reducibility ...

This paper presents a formal approach to cognitive modeling by utilizing conceptual spaces. Conceptual spaces were introduced by Peter Gärdenfors as geometric and topologic representations that mediate between the symbolic and subconceptual cognitive levels. They can be used for knowledge representation and to explain cognitive reasoning. The goal here is to discuss both the advantages of this ...

The design of complex information systems usually involves the production of a number of separate conceptual design modules. These are subsequently integrated to form a global information schema. The integration of these modules is a well-known problem area in database systems design. With the likely availability of \oo-the-shelf" modules in future this has become a crucial problem to solve. Th...

This paper develops two agent knowledge bases in conceptual graph form, one using the KD45 underlying logical model for belief and one without any underlying logical model for belief. Action-attitudes in the knowledge bases provide contexts that represent the agents’ mental attitude towards, and willingness to act upon information in the knowledge bases. Preconditions for communication acts are...

In conceptual design, there are decision problems wherein the information cannot be assessed precisely in a quantitative manner, but may be assessed in a qualitative manner. This necessitates a linguistic descript on a decision problem in conceptual design. Based on this viewpoint a new fuzzy decision model for selecting the preferred conceptual design from a set of alternatives is presented. T...

Over the years, various meta-languages have been used to manually enrich documents with conceptual knowledge of some kind. Examples include keyword assignment to citations or, more recently, tags to websites. In this paper we propose generative concept models as an extension to query modeling within the language modeling framework, which leverages these conceptual annotations to improve retriev...

This chapter describes an application of conceptual graphs to support software requirements development — the process of determining what software needs exist and how those needs will be filled. As a human knowledge and experience-based activity, requirements development is an appropriate domain for applying formal models of cognitive structures. This chapter introduces the following contributi...