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Home > Technology > Semantic paths
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 Identifying and analyzing a cognitive path in
a map (and even across maps) is a higher
reasoning exercise of technical and pedagogical deepness:
it is one of the more
efficient available learning methods, and maybe one of the more powerful tools that
concept maps offer the teacher
and the student.
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It is widely recognized in the research community, and most of all in the
applied research in education, that concept maps or semantic networks (that in the
end are the same thing), are the more adequate method to represent knowledge, and
are the more efficient tool for learning in school, college or education in
general.
Among the
elements that validate these assertions, largely demonstrated in
practice, there is the likeness of the map conceptual model (its reticular structure,
multimode and multilevel, and with typified relations) to the human
memory format, the way it is accessed and processed by the human mind: as a
matter of fact, in reasoning, the mind goes through several
associative
tracks between ideas (or concepts). |
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As
we all know, the map fundamental elements are concepts, their instances, and
relations;
concepts (conceptual generalizations, events, etc.) concatenated by the
relations, form propositions. A proposition constitutes an assertion and
is considered a truth.
The reticular connectivity of these propositions
represents knowledge.
Thus, in a map it is not only evidenced that two concepts
are related, but how these concepts are related.
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A semantic path is: |
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a non discontinuous
linear
trajectory between two non adjacent concepts in the map network, subtended by all
path composing concepts and the connecting relations. |
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a specific concept concatenation that represents a particular cognitive
aspect in the map. |
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a complex regular expression (or proposition). |
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a semantic search resulting perspective, a map view. |
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a qualified thinking path. |
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a description of the higher level relation between two non directly connected
(distant) concepts. |
Can be considered as part of a
subconscious
reasoning; an implicit reasoning in fundamental cognitive
processes.
Represents a higher order concept,
that cannot be represented with a single concept.
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Identifying semantic paths between two concepts in a map is:
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An
essential
reasoning task. |
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A semantic memory exploration, that will place certain key concepts in a
coherent, semantic and cognitive ordering. |
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Filling conceptual emptiness. |
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Facilitating high level inference.
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An elementary but very useful exercise on a concept map is
to draw inferences from the
path between two non directly related
concepts, finding
the path that connects them, a specific
navigation route among all present routes.
The process of finding (or better, identifying) a semantic path in a concept
map can be intended as a progressive activation, as if
an activation signal spread
from concept to concept, or as
an avalanche that
progressively spreads from node to node, incorporating knowledge on its
way.
Another way (and also very intuitive) to understand semantic paths is to
consider the path identification as "passing the
marker along the path on the map".
In cognitive terms, the
concept that receives more activation
(that is part
of more paths) is considered as more central to a given domain.
The concepts most prone to this role are those
most connected, to which more relations arrive (and/or from which depart).
Navigating this new route, necessarily inducts a cognitive analysis.
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Knowledge Master resources to identify cognitive paths
The inductive mode
The user can
individuate a semantic path through a semantic search, starting from a specific
concept; it is a very simple way to navigate a map, selecting in every
case the relation to "pass the marker" on, and taking decisions on
every path detour node. This method, besides enabling the active and conscious
individuation of the path, taking decisions (a fundamental task in whichever
learning activity), enables saving the path for a subsequent analysis and for
other learning activities as well.
The inductive mode
Essentially, this method directly answers the question
"What is the relation between concepts A and B?",
being A and B not contiguous. We all agree that knowledge (in real mind) is
highly integrated in many modes, the same as concepts in a network are somehow
related. Therefore it is always possible to relate two concepts in our mind or
in the network, though it might seem a very difficult task. If we assert that
semantic paths already exist "latent" in the map, and that usually a
concept map is highly connected, between two concepts there will exist several
paths, maybe one shorter and some longer, depending this
multiplicity on the distance between the two selected concepts and on the
map
connectivity.
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If semantic searching is a dialog with
knowledge, the search resulting semantic path analysis
is a very powerful learning tool; even more, the resulting learning due to path
analysis, is the richest and most direct fruit of this
dialog.
