Visual ontology engineering and cognitive psychology
Abstract
Visual ontology engineering serves as both a decision support tool in business and a methodology for creating corporate knowledge management systems. This paper provides an overview of visual ontology engineering methods, taking into account findings from cognitive psychology. Visual models are understood here as various diagrams, graphs, and sketches intended for subsequent development of ontologies or conceptual models of subject domains, ideas, structures, or processes. Among the known diagrammatic knowledge representation models, ontologies have been selected as the most widespread modeling approach. The paper examines how cognitive style characteristics influence ontology design and learning in the field of ontological engineering. It also addresses the specifics of developing visual-analytical thinking skills and discusses typical errors that arise during the modeling process. The paper may be of interest to business analysts, system architects, and developers of intelligent applications. The recommendations offered are based on the author’s many years of experience teaching courses on “Visual-Analytical Thinking” and “Knowledge Engineering,” as well as conducting ontology engineering trainings in companies.
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