On the Fuzzy Cognitive Map attractor distance

Fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) has commonly been used as a prediction tool. The FCM forward chains have been used to find answers to what-if questions. The process starts with the encoding of the what-if question into a stimulus vector. The vector goes through a series of vector-matrix multiplication until the FCM converges to one of the FCM attractors. The attractor is the answer to the initial question. There are several types of FCM attractors. The usefulness of the different types of attractors relies heavily on the user´s objectives and interpretations. This paper presents the theoretical discussion on distance measurement among the various FCM attractor distances. Subsequently the FCM attractor distance (FCMAD) based on genetic algorithm is proposed. The use of this distance in FCM goal oriented analysis and FCM learning is discussed. Experiment results have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed technique.