Will it? Won't it? Artificial general intelligence - AGI

In the media - notably the financial press (radio, TV, Times, FT here) there have been recent questions raised about whether the generative AI bubble is about to burst. The latest releases of GAI are not the step-change that might have been expected. Artificial General Intelligence may not be quite in-sight. As a result I've been reminded of Prof. Peter Gärdenfors work on 'Conceptual Spaces':

'Within cognitive science, two approaches currently dominate the problem of modeling representations. 

1. The symbolic approach views cognition as computation involving symbolic manipulation. 

2. Connectionism, a special case of associationism, models associations using artificial neuron networks. 

Peter Gärdenfors offers his theory of conceptual representations as a bridge between the symbolic and connectionist approaches.' MIT Press.

Hodges'model facilitates a hybrid response to situations, as needed.

A further prompt is the programme for November's AI Health 2025:

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/health2025/?u=programme

Peter Gärdenfors. (2000) Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought. MIT Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2076.001.0001

https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/2532/Conceptual-SpacesThe-Geometry-of-Thought

You say Hodges' model is a map. What's the scale?

"That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"

"About six inches to the mile."

""Only six inches!"exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!"

"Have you used it much?" I enquired.

"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."

        Lewis Carroll - The Complete Illustrated Works. Gramercy Books, New York (1982). Page 727.

My source
Text: https://people.duke.edu/~ng46/topics/lewis-carroll.htm

Plus a letter in FTWeekend: by Prof. R.T. Harrison. 'Country as its own map served as well' https://www.ft.com/content/2ad8ea16-d27d-11e1-abe7-00144feabdc0 1 Sept. 2012.

Domain walls ...

"A domain wall is a type of topological soliton that occurs whenever a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken. Domain walls are also sometimes called kinks in analogy with closely related kink solution of the sine-Gordon model or models with polynomial potentials.^[1][2][3] Unstable domain walls can also appear if spontaneously broken discrete symmetry is approximate and there is a false vacuum.

A domain (hyper volume) is extended in three spatial dimensions and one time dimension. A domain wall is the boundary between two neighboring domains. Thus a domain wall is extended in two spatial dimensions and one time dimension.

Important examples are:

• Domain wall (magnetism), an interface separating magnetic domains
• Domain wall (optics), for domain walls in optics
• Domain wall (string theory), a theoretical 2-dimensional singularity."
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_wall
  

 INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

conceptual spaces threshold concepts [#h2cm as] relational ontology	magnetism optics string theory
a space to tell stories of and compare walls seek openings so many spaces of / to welcome	these walls: are they necessary? whose needs do they meet? we know walls listen and talk too who do they protect? who do the respect?

Among the domain walls
are those that bring us together,
those that bring us - 'I' into being,
and yes, those that [try to] take us apart.

Inspiration:
Leslie Rosenberg, THE COSMOS IS MOSTLY MADE OF SOMETHING WE CANNOT SEE, Scientific American, January 2018, Volume 318, Number 1. pp.48-53.

Axioms, Domain Walls, and the Early Universe, P. Sikivie in Physical Review Letters, Volume 48. No. 17, pp.1156-1159; April 26, 1982.

Adapting Gärdenfors' - 'event boards' figure

Further to the post:

c/o Gärdenfors: "Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces" 

[ re. Gärdenfors (2020) ]

A related work (Gärdenfors et al., 2019) includes 'figure 1' copied here:

 

Fig. 1. The components of the holistic AI architecture
Gärdenfors et al., 2019

 

I've never been diagnosed with ADHD, but am left to wonder. I say this in all seriousness, having come across individuals who need formal assessment (autism too) and hence referral. Listening to others, it seems many people have 'unfinished' writing projects. One here (>40k words) still proves helpful, with notes on Gärdenfors' work and trying to relate this to the Health Career Model.

With some notes, I have copied the tables below from Gärdenfors (2000) and you can see the development in figure 1 above.

Cognitive Science
Goals	explanation and construction
constraint	problem of representation
Solution	SYMBOLIC	ASSOCIATIVISM	CONCEPTUAL

Table 6 Cognitive Science as explanation and construction 

These solutions to the problem of representation have been applied and their respective strengths identified in the construction of ANNs as per table 4.

	Levels of Representation p.253
SYMBOLIC:	Searching, matching and rule following
CONCEPTUAL:	Vector calculations, coordinate transformations and other geometrical operations
SUBCONCEPTUAL:	Pattern recognition, pattern transformation and dynamic adaptation of values

Table 7 Levels of Representation

When presented with evidence in support of my project, I must utilise it. So, quoting Gärdenfors again:

"In this way, simulations can provide the robotic system the power
to imagine events that is needed to understand the physical, social
and, eventually, the emotional world we live in." Gärdenfors (2020)

Here, Gärdenfors' reference to: physical, social, and emotional I read as:

physical - SCIENCES domain

social - SOCIOLOGY domain

emotional - INTRA- INTERPERSONAL domain

Of course, Gärdenfors defines domain* and other terms (quality dimensions), and domain differs within Hodges' Health Career Model.

Students and artificial intelligence [AI] have something in common in that we want to enroll student nurses who have an aptitude and attitude that equips them with basic nursing skills and knowledge. This knowledge is nuanced, and would draw upon the plethora of proposed literacies, emotional, social and spiritual in this instance. Even before lectures begin, and the curriculum begins its march, the point is the need for common sense, general intelligence and ability to problem solve and reason.

Englemore, Robert; Morgan, Tony (1988).
Blackboard Systems. Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 978-0-201-17431-1.

 

In Englemore and Morgan's Blackboard Systems, Chapter 12, AGE: (Attempt to GEneralize) A Knowledge-Based Program for Building Knowledge-Based Programs (Nii and Aiello), there are two levels of irony.

H2cm is a long-term project and the journey here covers aspects of knowledge engineering, information processing to arrive at a care architecture and care assurance.

Below I've re-created figure 1, retaining 'symbolic' and 'conceptual' capabilities. The conceptual capability extends beyond conceptual spaces, to include threshold concepts, a concept-based curricula, semantic networks and more. The 'symbolic capability' is retained as I still maintain that h2cm can be represented within a computer program. The 'sub-conceptual level' has in a way been reversed - 'exploded' to take-in the primary focus and purposes for h2cm: the student, the patient, the public. 

 

H2CM: The components of a holistic care architecture -
See also: Gärdenfors et al., 2019

Our 'event board' is Nursing, Health and Social care situated using h2cm. Simulation is retained, its central location does not imply importance - quite the contrary. Theory combines lectures, research, the evidence-base, self-study, models and theories of nursing. Placements brings in clinical encounters with patients, carers and the public; plus mentors and the scope of learning opportunities. I have kept peers separate with the process of professional socialisation - which (should) span all.

*I will revisit this and my notes (definitions) at some point.

Gärdenfors P (2020) Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces. Front. Psychol. 11:630. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00630

Gärdenfors, P., Williams, M.-A., Johnston, B., Billingsley, R., Vitale, J., Peppas, P., et al. (2019). “Event boards as tools for holistic AI,” in Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cognition, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 2418, eds A. Chella, I. Infantino, and A. Lieto (Palermo: University of Technology Sydney), 1–10.

Gärdenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual Spaces, MIT Press, Cambridge.

c/o Gärdenfors: "Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces"

Personal circumstances mean that over the past decade I've given up on several memberships and hence the benefits that were to be had. The British Computer Society was invaluable, and I'm sure still is even at the 'Associate' level. In addition to the Nursing Specialist Group, the Expert Systems Group, Medical Informatics, SocioTechnical and a Methods group have proved an engrossing distraction and a more remote source of ongoing interest. I'm not sure if this is persistence, or stubbornness, but it surely qualifies as sustainable - as I hope this blog demonstrates.

Following the workshops in 2012, and 2016 on Conceptual Spaces I checked online for developments. Amongst the results a paper (added to Zotero):

"Another field of learning that is required for robotic reasoning
about causation and for communicating, for example in a
planning situation, is action categorization. Representations of
actions in terms of conceptual spaces, such as those proposed
by, for example, Chella et al. (2001), Gärdenfors (2014), and
Gharaee et al. (2017a,b), provide a potentially fruitful method for
implementations. Simulating an action and then using the event
mapping that has been learned to predict a result vector, can then
be used to generate plans and to reason about complex situations.
In this way, simulations can provide the robotic system the power
to imagine events that is needed to understand the physical, social
and, eventually, the emotional world we live in.

The event structure has not yet been implemented in any
concrete system. However, a cognitively motivated architecture
for holistic AI systems, including robotic ones, that integrates
machine learning and knowledge representation has been
proposed in Gärdenfors et al. (2019). The central idea of the
proposal is to use ‘event boards’ representing components of
events as an analogy to blackboards that formed the backbone
in some earlier AI systems." p.8. [with my emphasis].

For years - ever since learning and applying Hodges' model I've been carrying a requirement - a project. As Prof. Gärdenfors notes blackboards were an approach artificial intelligence systems, plus frames, cases, neural networks and others. The Health Career Model can be viewed as a series of boards, frames, conceptual spaces and compound threshold concepts. With so many purported forms of informatics and literacy, h2cm can ultimately represent the general state of affairs. It is situated (previously):

h2cm = 'GI - General Intelligence'?

'general problem'

Englemore, Robert; Morgan, Tony (1988). Blackboard Systems.
Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-17431-1.
McCord Nelson, Marilyn / W.T. Illingworth
(1990) A Practical Guide to Neural Nets.
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 10: 0201523760.

Over the years, I've been asked about the number of books on shelves and boxed. This week on BBC Radio 4 or Times Radio(?), I caught a snippet of how we hold on to books and why. Your library: can be part of your identity. 

Knowing the life story of a resident in a nursing home, they may be comforted carrying a book; if staff can manage their anxiety about its potential use as a weapon in the event of an altercation. Having several books on a window sill [they do have a window?], can help. The light damage to the book pales in contrast to the reduced anxiety.

I realise what books mean to me - on 'display' even though nobody else sees them and even as I try to reduce the count. I still hold on to some cherished titles, and will return to those above. Originally, I picked up the Health Career Model and created the now archived website, so it would not gather dust on the shelf. Without action now though - there isn't much difference.

Gärdenfors P (2020) Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces. Front. Psychol. 11:630. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00630

Cognitive Cartography Is ...

individual
| 

 INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Cognitive Cartography is ..	Physical
and Social.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-search-of-the-brains-social-road-maps/

Schafer, M., Schiller, D., The Brain's Social Road Maps, Scientific American, 322: 2, FEB 2020. pp.22-27.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-search-of-the-brains-social-road-maps/

Previously:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2009/07/cogeographic-or-cogneographic-concepts.html

Distinction: Phenomenal - Psychological and Scientific interpretations

"In order to separate different uses of quality dimensions it is important to introduce a distinction between a phenomenal (or psychological) and a scientific interpretation. The phenomenal interpretation concerns the cognitive structures (perceptions, memories, etc.) of humans or other organisms. The scientific interpretation, on the other hand, treats dimensions as a part of a scientific theory." Gärdenfors (2004).

SELF - individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - POPULATION

Phenomenal (or psychological)	Scientific

Gärdenfors, P. (2014) Conceptual Spaces as a Framework for Knowledge Representation, Mind and Matter, Vol. 2(2), p. 14. 

Talk @PHPNW Manchester 2nd April 7pm

Responding to a couple of tweets by @phpnw I am now (happily) tasked with giving a talk on Tuesday evening:

Concepts, Spaces and Thresholds and why they matter

57 Thomas Street

Northern Quarter

Manchester

M4 1NA

Within the Drupal community and online I've heard frequent mention of imposter syndrome as reflected here. I'm no 'programmer', as much as I might wish and after stepping in to help with a quick editorial I'm also conscious of the risks of self-plagiarism - repeating myself yet again.

On Tuesday I'm pulling together threshold concepts, conceptual spaces and #h2cm in that order. I still believe there is a very worthy project here. Even if only having a sense that all the jig-saw pieces are present even if not quite 'correct'?

Recognising the expertise and professionalism of the audience I'm trying to make it relevant with an exercise too. I'm very grateful for the faith of the organisers as I fill a gap of sorts.

Thank goodness the talk is not a day earlier- which might be quite apt in respect of the 'new' site.

With changes in my full-time work status there will be more time.

Always good to see an excuse bite the dust...

The Art & Science of Health: [conceptual scraps i]

The role that both art and science have to play in health, medicine and nursing is recognised by all. The distinction can be made in a great many ways using Hodges' model. Now: there is an exercise for a new group of student nurses ... ?

As I hope is evident in numerous blog posts and subjects of relevance to h2cm, notably, conceptual spaces and threshold concepts, concepts are a basic element in nursing scholarship and debate within art.
 
In the FT Weekend June 9-10, 2012, p.11 I read: "Conceptual: only worth the paper it's written on" (Georgina Adam). From a healthcare perspective, Adam's opening question seems fairly innocuous:

"How do you prove that you own a work of conceptual art?"

Amid the ongoing revelations involving user's personal data and the governance and values of social media companies lies the question of ownership. First though, back to Adams:

"This is an interesting issue in today’s art market, with the trend towards the dematerialisation of art, and the primacy of the idea over its physical presence.

For example, the late US artist Félix González-Torres’s works include “Candy Spills”, in which wrapped sweets are piled on the floor or in a corner, to be taken and eaten by viewers. When the pile has gone, the owner of the work replenishes it. So what stops anyone making and selling their own “Candy Spill”?

The answer is the certificate of authenticity issued by the artist or their estate. This scrap of paper is, in fact, the only proof that the work of art genuinely belongs to you, and this is actually what you buy and sell.

So losing it is a disaster."

The contrast of this within health care and its 'record' is quite stark. There are at least two ways to  distinguish between the scraps of paper we use ...:

to be continued...

Book: Knowledge and Action (open access)

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

KNOWLEDGE	ACTION

Knowledge and Action

There are of course many types of knowledge. There must be if our muscles can also be said to have a 'memory'. Here I am referring to the cognitive phenomena of an individual's possession of knowledge and how this is elicited, assessed and expressed clinically, educationally and in our day-to-day experiencesl. Clearly knowledge is, or should be translated into practice with evidence in the actions that follow.

This new, open access book on "Knowledge and Action" is a valuable and timely arrival. Timely as chapter 12 - Semantic Knowledge, Domains of Meaning and Conceptual Spaces is by Prof. Peter Gärdenfors. It is already a year since the last Conceptual Spaces Workshop in Sweden.

There are also two chapters related to healthcare.

Part of the utility of Hodges' model lies in how it can encompass knowledge (in all its forms), action AND space, the latter is also a key focus of the text. In addition I often added the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity to posts. The quote below from the book which I am citing at length to retain the meaning is also interesting as it could apply to Hodges' model as a whole. Hodges' model is multicontextual and situated. In addition:

We might also say that healthcare is invariably intersubjective; into which the evidence-based ethos would have us inject the largest dose possible of objectivity through scientific and/or political means(?).

Please see the specific chapter for the references in what follows:

Current theories of practice constitute an effort to reformulate the Aristotelian conception of phronesis, which implies that practice is seen as the basis and purpose of theoretical knowledge (Flyvbjerg, 2001). That conception also implies an escape from the dualism of the subjective and objective (Bernstein, 1971; Stern, 2003, p. 185). Schatzki is seen as one of the leading thinkers in this approach, and he bases his practice theory on a new societal social ontology in which the dualism of ontological individualism and holism is overcome (Schatzki, 2006). He calls his new ontology site ontology, defining site as a type of context in which human coexistence takes place and which also includes the social entities themselves. Social events can thus be understood only through an analysis of this site. The close relationship between this concept of site and the geographic concept of place^# (Tuan, 2001) is evident:  

    Practice theory places practices at the center of the socio-human sciences instead of traditional structures, systems, events, actions. None of the practices can be reduced to a sum of its elements, which are of a complex character: they are mental and material, factual and relational, human and material, individual and supra-individual, etc. This conception also overcomes the dualism action/structure, … Each practice then operates in a typical regime, according to particular scenarios, it has its inherent normativity, etc. (Višňovský, 2009, p.391).

As an open access text this is valuable source, which I will revisit again soon.

Huib Ernste (2017) Rationality and Discursive Articulation in Place-Making. Chapter 3. In Knowledge and Action. editors: Peter Meusburger, Benno Werlen, Laura Suarsana. Vol 9. Online: Springer (Open) International Publishing.

^# I have wondered about this combination of cognition and geography -
https://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/cogneography
There is existing work on 'psychogeography' post to follow.

My source for this book with thanks: Library | Lancaster University

No Body... No Mind...

Hodges' model: an open conceptual space for the naive beginner and expert alike...

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

NO BODY...!?	NO MIND...!?

"I also find it helpful to be both expert and naive. Following Shunryu Suzuki’s saying, “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few,” I find it helpful to approach each client with an attitude of “we don’t really know anything about this, let’s explore it together.” On the other hand, clients expect (and have a right to expect) some level of expertise and the fact as clinicians is we do have a body of knowledge which is valuable. By being both “expert and naive,” simultaneously teacher and student, we can model a kind of being-with-a-problem, which is most paradoxical but most essential: I (and you) are both healthy and ill, distressed and just fine." p.23.

Rosenbaum, R., & Shahar, Golan. (2012). Thoughts on Mrs. T: No Body, No Mind. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 22(1), 19-26.

Hodges' meta-model...?

In combination the empty foreground and background brings us simultaneously to what is 'now': the situation, the context. The personal, social, political and physical are constantly re-presented in the health:ill-health duality. Our focus remains: ill-health. We still lack the depth of vision to resolve this duality. Focus needs structure: only from simplicity may we travel to complexity. 

The need for simplicity, structure, meaning and recording can be found, accomplished and apprehended through the conceptual framework known as Hodges' model. Its cruciform span is coincidental, and yet can be interpreted as four ways. Four ways of looking - seeing, learning and knowing. Five ways and even. As the model and the user reflects the innumerable perspectives that can be found as these conceptual spaces breathe: waxing and waning. Always from that initial state. Emptiness with structure.

c/o Mauri Kaipainen - Conceptual Spaces @ Work 2016 over

Dear CS @W 2016 contributor or participant,

This message was sent to all who registered to the conference.

The second conference on Conceptual Spaces @ Work took place at Södertörn University, Stockholm on Aug 25-27, preceded by the co-located CS360 workshop on the 24th. The international event with physically present or virtual participants from all over Europe, Australia and the US was a great intellectual success. A number of applications and theoretical developments of the theory of conceptual spaces was presented, followed by lively and multi-faceted discussions that will no doubt cross-fertilise further intellectual offsprings. It is beyond the reasonable to exhaust the entire repertoire presented, several talks discussed various forms of reasoning in terms of CS. A few related CS to theory and history of science. Some other took even up fundamental epistemological questions of the paradigm.

In the panel discussion, a number of potential ways were identified in which CS might contribute to - if not solving - perhaps easing current hard problems of the world that often boil down to different or incommensurable conceptual spaces. The practical topic of the organization of the CS community was also discussed. Strong support was given to the idea of the community evolving as a self-organising network instead of being forced into some strict format. Regarding the organisation of the next CS @W conference, the two Antonios Chella and Lieto promised to look into the possibilities to organise it in Italy, the timing of course remaining open at this moment.

VIDEO RECORDINGS
All video recordings are available at https://sh-medieteknik.solidtango.com/categories/cs-w-2016 .

POST-CONFERENCE COMMUNICATION
The most natural communication channel in the present may be the CS360 network driven by Frank Zenker. If you wish to be on the mailing list, please register at https://conceptualspaces360.wordpress.com/newslist/ .

POST-CONFERENCE PUBLICATION
I will soon return to the presenters about the planned anthology, consisting mainly of elaborated talks of the conference. The deadline for the articles is April 30 2017.

Warmest thanks to all who participated or contributed to the conference!

Best regards,

Mauri
Mauri Kaipainen
PhD, professor, Media Technology
...
https://mkaipain.wixsite.com/mkaipain
Skype: mkaipain
MeetMe: http://www.doodle.com/mkaipain
--
Södertörn University
School of Natural Sciences, Technology and Environmental Studies
Alfred Nobels allé 7
S-141 89 Huddinge
Sweden

Community & Future: 2nd Workshop Conceptual Spaces at Work

There is a blog for the Conceptual Spaces community:

CS360

This includes an introduction describing synergies, videocasts when available, upcoming events, a bibliography, background to CS and links to sources. You can also subscribe to a mail list.

Yesterday, the close included the almost obligatory reflection on the future.

There are tentative plans for related meetings (Paris, Berlin, Palermo) and while 4 years is a long time, I can see what is meant by giving time for people to develop work. That point is not lost on me.

 What also stands out is the theoretical emphasis to date within CS, so there is a need to open the work to a wider audience and practical applications.

In the media there's a lot about 'public interest technology' and 'public interest law'. For example, as well as commercial enterprises, Drupal is playing a key part in leveraging the public interest through its work with not-for-profit organisations.

There is an ongoing call for papers for the next 8 months, obviously for the speakers and for those attending. Do contact people through the email leads at CS360 if interested.

CS is one possible tool I might use at some point, perhaps it also has relevance for you?

For me, presently it's departure gate F62!

2nd Workshop Conceptual Spaces at Work videos (updated Apr 2026)

I seem to be late with this post, two of three days of the conference are already done.

It seems like yesterday I was in Lund trying to find Hobykrok B&B. In the distance cranes were building what I was told was to be a scientific facility - an atom smasher of some sort. That was 2012: now the Max IV [ well it had to be ;-) ] Laboratory (a synchroton) is complete.

You can catch up on video presentations since Thursday at:

https://sh-medieteknik.solidtango.com/categories/cs-w-2016

Sessions on this the final day will also be streamed live.

Updated 26 April 2026: I notice this post is popular at present, and yet links are dated - broken. Please find the YouTube list below c/o Steele Price, which may offer some compensation:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH-FHjT5hHHjwmQGhERXIFbLMTGhq4fYX

2nd Workshop: Conceptual Spaces at Work - 25-27 August 2016, Sweden

The workshop focuses on concepts and their applications using the theory of Conceptual Spaces (CS), as introduced by Peter Gärdenfors (2000).

Applications of Conceptual Spaces

It provides a geometric model for the representation of human conceptual knowledge that bridges the symbolic and the sub-conceptual levels of representation. The model has already proven to have a broad range of applicability, not only within cognitive science but also across a number of disciplines related to concepts and representation. 

A sample of this work is collected in Zenker & Gärdenfors (2015), based on papers presented in Conceptual Spaces at Work 2012 at Lund University.

...

(I hope to attend.)

W2tQ: 'conceptual spaces'

Video: Concepts for Nursing Practice, Giddens

With an email seemingly lost I have registered and applied for a review copy of Gidden's Concepts for Nursing Practice. The 2e is published next month. I do hope for a positive response.

Gidden's approach, also proposed by others clearly has a great synergy with Hodges' model in concept-based learning and the learner's career. The most interesting aspect of this is to try to respond to the short-comings of a purely conceptual basis for curricula. I'm sure this is possible combining a pragmatic view of knowledge, an evaluation research design, threshold concepts and conceptual spaces with Hodges' model.

Giddens, J. (2013). Concepts for nursing practice. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby/Elsevier.

Sharing of Knowledge: Culture, Community, Conceptual Spaces and Economics (Gärdenfors)

"Culture, in the form of interaction between people, may in itself generate constraints on conceptual spaces. For example, Freyd (1983) puts forward the intriguing proposal that conceptual spaces may evolve as a representational form in a community just because people have to share knowledge (Freyd 1983, pp. 193–194):

There have been a number of different approaches towards analyzing the structures in semantic domains, but what these approaches have in common is the goal of discovering constraints on knowledge representation. I argue that the structures the different semantic analyses uncover may stem from shareability constraints on knowledge representation. [. . . ] So, if a set of terms can be shown to behave as if they are represented in a three-dimensional space, one inference that is often made is that there is both some psychological reality to the spatial reality (or some formally equivalent formulation) and some innate necessity to it. But it might be that the structural properties of the knowledge domain came about because such structural properties provide for the most efficient sharing of concepts. That is, we cannot be sure that the regularities tell us anything about how the brain can represent things, or even “prefer” to, if it didn’t have to share concepts with other brains.

Here Freyd hints at an economic explanation of why we have conceptual spaces: they facilitate the sharing of knowledge." p.17.

From: Gärdenfors, P. (2004) Conceptual Spaces as a Framework for Knowledge Representation. Mind and Matter. Vol. 2(2), pp. 9–27.

Ngrams: E-portfolios, nursing theory, models of nursing...: Do the lines run true?

For the latest module I'm looking at e-portfolios in nursing education and possibly wider afield. In the FT Weekend Life & Arts there is an extract -

Capitalism’s secret love affair with bureaucracy

- from David Graeber’s book: The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy published this week on March 12. It includes a graph from Google Books Ngram a word count through time of 'bureaucracy'. I'd read about Ngrams and tried them quite some time ago, but never used them. Now's my chance.

The graph below began with e-portfolio and eportfolio. I tried nursing e-portfolio... but these were not found. With conceptual framework the scale was disrupted. Adding models of nursing and nursing theory provided a frame that also nicely encompasses, at least in this rendering, conceptual space and threshold concepts.

At the risk of asking too much of the graph if not the source, we might be disappointed that models of nursing is not running concurrent with e-portfolio and reassured that nursing theory has waned but is 'still up there'. This is to forget though that the count for e-portfolio here is general not nursing specific.

Ngrams are another tool and a dynamic one no doubt, when the API is utilised, the data downloaded and words are re-examined over time. In answer to the title's question, I do not believe the lines do run true but this is about nursing and e-portfolios.

Slides: Workshop on Hodges' model at 5th Threshold Concepts Conference Durham 11 July 2014

See also previous post:

http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/h2cm-workshop-at-threshold-concepts.html