Synthesis of Cognitive Maps and Applications

Cognitive maps are a knowledge representation model that describes influences between concepts. Their building is usually done by many people. This is a difficult task for them since they have to agree on every aspect of the map. This article proposes a new method to allow these people to be the designers of their own cognitive maps. A process, called synthesis, builds then a single cognitive map from this set of maps. The divergences in the maps due to the different points of view have to be solved. To do so, preferences on the designers are defined, they are used to favor the knowledge brought by some designer over the other ones.