Ontology design and individual cognitive peculiarities: A pilot study

Visual ontology design is affected by cognitive peculiarities of expert or analyst.Field-independence, reflection and category width are main cognitive style features.Ontology assessment is feasible via cognitive ergonomic metrics.Collaborative ontology design may have several different scenarios. The paper presents the main results of the KOMET (Knowledge and cOntent structuring via METhods of collaborative ontology design) project, which aims to develop a novel paradigm for knowledge structuring based on the interplay between cognitive psychology and ontology engineering. By the knowledge structure (a conceptual model) we define the main domain concepts and relations between them in the form of a graph, map or diagram. This approach considers individual cognitive styles and uses recent advances in knowledge engineering and conceptual structuring; it aims to create new, consistent and structurally holistic knowledge bases for various areas of science and technology. Two stages of research have been completed: research into correlations between the expert's individual cognitive style and the peculiarities of the expert's subject domain ontology development; and research into correlations between the expert's individual cognitive style and the group ontology design (including design accomplished by groups of experts with either similar or different cognitive styles). The results of these research stages can be applied to organizing collaborative ontology design (especially for research and learning purposes), data structuring and other group analytical work. Implications for practice are briefly delineated.

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