Pool2: a generic system for cognitive map development and decision analysis

The authors present Pool2, a generic system for cognitive map development and decision analysis that is based on negative-positive-neutral (NPN) logics and NPN relations. NPN logics and relations are extensions of two-valued crisp logic, crisp (binary) relations, and fuzzy relations, NPN logics and relations assume logic values in the NPN interval [-1, 1] instead of values in [0, 1]. A theorem is presented that provides conditions for the existence and uniqueness of heuristic transitive closures of an NPN relation. It is shown that NPN logic and NPN relations can be used directly to model a target world with a combination of NPN relationships of attributes and/or concepts for the purposes of cognitive map understanding, and decision analysis. Two algorithms are presented for heuristic transitive closure computation and for heuristic path searching, respectively. Basic ideas are illustrated by example. A comparison is made between this approach and others