Draft:Concept space

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  • Comment: For example,
    Chase, William G.; Simon, Herbert A. (1973). "Perception in chess". Cognitive Psychology. 4 (1). doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90004-2. ISSN 0010-0285.
    makes no mention of "concept space" at all. Carpimaps talk to me! 02:35, 12 June 2023 (UTC)
For conceptual space that is a particular psychology theory, see conceptual space.
An example of a concept space about aviation

Concept space is a graphical workspace aiming to represent and manipulate mental representation in a way that closely resembles mental structures as informed by cognitive science. Concept space may be used to support learning, curriculum mapping, design, collaboration and knowledge management

Concept space is related to concept map by the principle of representing ideas and information as boxes and the relation between them as arrows labeled with linking phrases. Concept space extends the notion of concept by allowing the box to expand and to contain a concept space about specific information in itself. Users can enter into these spaces, typically through zooming. This creates hierarchical layers from general to more specific and facilitates interconnecting very large amounts of ideas and information within the same concept space.

Characteristics[edit]

Concept space is characterized by the application of principles that have roots in psychology and philosophy.

1. Concepts are expandable[edit]

A concept is an abstraction over specific or interrelated concepts. Concept space represents this property by offering the ability to enlarge the concept’s box causing it to open a zone for a new concept space inside the concept. This internal concept space can be navigated into by zooming or other interactions. It becomes a new infinite canvas to elaborate on aspects of the parent concept. This visual structure encourages natural organization from most general to more specific. The top level displays the high level concepts and their relations. It resembles the principles of Chunking (psychology). which is a process that helps working memory to be more efficient[1]. This new dimension of layers also lets concept space organize and connect multiple thousands of concepts, so it is used in larger projects to centralize large amounts of knowledge [2]

2. Concepts are instantiated in multiple context[edit]

Concept space allows us to reuse and elaborate a same concept in multiple contexts.[2][3][4]. For example, the concept of a chemical reaction, including all its internal details, can be instantiated in all the contexts where this reaction is meaningful, and any addition or correction to this chemical reaction will be reflected in all instances. Instances allow reuse of prior knowledge and provide a means to interconnect distant concepts [4]

3. Relations between concepts forms knowledge[edit]

Concept space considers relations between concepts as fundamental elements to represent knowledge. Concept space uses a variety of visual representations to represent different types of relations[5][2][3]. The kind of relations are taken from conceptual blending’s vital relations [6][5][3]. The relations to say that a concept is part of something (Category) and the relation to say that concept is a type of something (Mereology), are represented by having a concept containing its part or its belonging concepts. The relations of Role and of Attribute are represented by attaching the actor of the role or the property on the side of the parent concept. The relation of identity is naturally represented by the usage of multiple instances of the same concept. Finally, the other relations, such as causality or less universal relations use arrows with a linking phrase. The variety of relations represented without arrows is one distinctive feature from mind maps and concept maps.

4. Social interactions supports knowledge creation and acquisition[edit]

Multiple users working in a concept space.

The design of concept space was influenced by Lave & Wenger’s work on communities of practices[7] and by social constructivism[3]. The ability to collaborate and negotiate the sense of knowledge is considered part of the definition of a concept space. A concept space typically offers real time collaboration in concepts shared with collaborators. It is also considered a good practice to keep some private space where the individual may build his own interpretation. Interestingly, the principles of instances allow to bring parts of a collaborative space into a private space, so the person can reorganize and work around pieces of information that are kept in sync with a team. The visual structure of concept space provides a communication of ideas and of directions, so collaborative concept-space was perceived by users to help in providing a shared vision of projects [2]. Social interaction also increases engagement in the context of education[8]

Relation to other knowledge graphs[edit]

A major difference with other knowledge graphs such as concept map and mind maps is the addition of a dimension of depth, and this is hinted at by the word space in concept space. This depth leads to making concepts and its content act like a manipulable and reusable chunk of information, but also, this hierarchical dimension allows concept space to structure and relate multiple thousand concepts[3]. Concept space is most useful where a large space of knowledge or ideas needs to be constructed. Mind maps and concept maps are more appropriate for single topics or for exploring one particular question.[9][page needed]

Concept space is also somewhat distinctive in its goal to act also as a place in which to work. It has the goal to offer the tools and facilities to create ideas, solutions, analysis and learning in the knowledge graph, so that all details of the process are captured.

Unlike mind maps and concept maps, concept space provides different visual representations for multiple frequent relations, such as being part of something, being a type of something, having a role in something, or being an attribute that describes something. It does not provide a system that is strictly formal and thus is quite different from UML diagrams or strict knowledge description models. It aims to support the mental process of people and teams more than providing a formal description of a process such as in flow diagram and flowchart .

History[edit]

Development of concept space started in 2010 at Université de Sherbrooke under the name of “extended concept mapping”[5]. The goal was to design a tool to support human thinking and learning processes, for individuals and for teams, by providing a system that would allow us to represent and manipulate information in a way that resembles how the mind works. Knowledge from cognitive science, education, sociology, expert studies and epistemology was used to develop design requirements[2]. The system of concept space started to be popularized in 2021 through conferences in Europe and North-America, and the system has been adopted in some universities and colleges in Canada and France.[3]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Thalmann, Mirko; Souza, Alessandra S.; Oberauer, Klaus (January 2019). "How does chunking help working memory?" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 45 (1): 37–55. doi:10.1037/xlm0000578. ISSN 1939-1285. PMID 29698045. S2CID 20393039.
  2. ^ a b c d e Foley, David (2022-11-01). "Discovering Concept-Space to Improve Student Experience and Teaching in Design Projects". Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA). doi:10.24908/pceea.vi.15884. ISSN 2371-5243. S2CID 253486147.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Foley, David (2022). "L'espace conceptuel : un dispositif pédagogique inédit". Agir ensemble dans l'enseignement supérieur: enjeux et perspectives - Sciencesconf.org. AIPU. Rennes (France).
  4. ^ a b Prasetya, Didik Dwi; Pinandito, Aryo; Hayashi, Yusuke; Hirashima, Tsukasa (2020). "The Performance of Extended Scratch-Build Concept Mapping Tool in Blended Learning". 2020 4th International Conference on Vocational Education and Training (ICOVET). 2020 4th International Conference on Vocational Education and Training (ICOVET). pp. 345–349. doi:10.1109/ICOVET50258.2020.9230047.
  5. ^ a b c Foley, David; Charron, François; Plante, Jean-Sébastien (2018). "Potential of the CogEx Software Platform to Replace Logbooks in Capstone Design Projects". Advances in Engineering Education. 6 (3).
  6. ^ Fauconnier, Gilles; Turner, Mark (2003). The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-08786-0.
  7. ^ Wenger, Etienne (1999-09-28). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66363-6.
  8. ^ Martin, Andrew J.; Dowson, Martin (2009-03-01). "Interpersonal Relationships, Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement: Yields for Theory, Current Issues, and Educational Practice". Review of Educational Research. 79 (1): 327–365. doi:10.3102/0034654308325583. ISSN 0034-6543. S2CID 145528244.
  9. ^ Moon, B.M.; Hoffman, R.R.; Novak, J.D.; Cañas, A.J. (2011). Applied Concept Mapping: Capturing, Analyzing, and Organizing Knowledge (1st ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press. ISBN 9781439828601.
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