Creating Taxonomies and Ontologies to Organize the Learning Sciences

Date: May 29, 2015

Speaker: Stephen Reed, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University

Abstract

There are increasing demands to organize scientific data as data continue to accumulate. I will provide an overview of my attempt to create taxonomies and ontologies to organize empirical and theoretical contributions in the learning sciences. Learning as Mapping Across Situations (Reed, 2012) is a taxonomy consisting of 3 types of mappings (one-to-one, one-to-many, partial) across knowledge states in 4 types of situations (problems, solutions, representations, sociocultural contexts). A Taxonomic Analysis of Abstraction (submitted to Educational Psychologist) analyzes how 3 levels of abstraction – attributes, instances, and categories – apply to a variety of learning activities. A Framework for Constructing Cognition Ontologies using WordNet, FrameNet and SUMO (Reed & Pease, 2015) applies tools from the Information Sciences to the Cognitive Sciences. Formal Ontologies as Standards for Knowledge Organization (submitted) continues our application of the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) to organize research on the development of early knowledge and scientific knowledge.

References

• Reed, S. K. (2012). Learning by mapping across situations. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21, 353-398.
• Reed, S. K., & Pease, A. (2015). A framework for constructing cognition ontologies using WordNet, FrameNet, and SUMO. Cognitive Systems Research, 33, 122-144.

Presentation: Slides are available here.