Chapter 2:

The Representation of
Knowledge

Expert Systems: Principles and

Programming, Fourth Edition
 Objectives
• Introduce the study of logic
• Learn the difference between formal logic and
informal logic
• Learn the meaning of knowledge and how it can
be represented
• Learn about semantic nets
• Learn about object-attribute-value triples

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 2

 Objectives Continued
• See how semantic nets can be translated into
Prolog
• Explore the limitations of semantic nets
• Learn about schemas
• Learn about frames and their limitations
• Learn how to use logic and set symbols to
represent knowledge

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 3

 Objectives Continued
• Learn about propositional and first order
predicate logic

• Learn about quantifiers

• Explore the limitations of propositional and

predicate logic

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 What is the study of logic?
• Logic is the study of making inferences – given a
set of facts, we attempt to reach a true conclusion.
• Logic Informal logic
Formal logic
• An example of informal logic is a courtroom
setting where lawyers make a series of inferences
hoping to convince a jury / judge .
• Formal logic (symbolic logic) is a more rigorous
approach to proving a conclusion to be true / false.

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 Why is Logic Important
• We use logic in our everyday lives – “should I
buy this car”, “should I seek medical attention”.
• Logics also needs semantics: semantics refers to
the meanings we give to symbols and logical
expressions (not to the words).

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 6

 Knowledge vs. Expert Systems
• Knowledge representation is key to the success
of expert systems for two reasons:
1. Expert systems are designed for knowledge
representation based on rules of logic called
inferences.
2. Knowledge affects the development, efficiency,
speed, and maintenance of the system. This is
just as the choice of data structure is import to the
program.

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 Arguments in Logic
• An argument refers to the formal way facts and
rules of inferences are used to reach valid
conclusions.

• The process of reaching valid conclusions is

referred to as logical reasoning.

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 How is Knowledge used?
• Noise: (no apparent information) Ali80

• Data: (potentially useful information) Ali 80

• Information: (potentially useful for knowledge)

first name: Ali average = 80

• Knowledge : (rules about using information)

The average of the student Ali is 80.
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 9
 The Pyramid of Knowledge

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 10

 How is Knowledge used?
• How do we use knowledge to reach conclusions
or solve problems?
• Heuristics refers to using experience to solve
problems – using precedents.
• Expert systems may have hundreds / thousands
of micro-precedents to refer to.

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 Epistemology

• Epistemology is the formal study of knowledge .

• Concerned with nature, structure, and origins of

knowledge.

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 Categories of Epistemology

•Philosophy •A priori

•A posteriori •Procedural

•Declarative •Tacit

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 A Priori Knowledge
• “That which precedes”
• Independent of knowledge from the senses
• Universally true
• Cannot be denied without contradiction
• For example, logic statements and
mathematical laws (e.g. “everything has a
cause”, “every man is a human”, “every
triangle has 3 sides”).

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 14

 A Posteriori Knowledge
• “That which follows”
• Derived from the senses
• Not always reliable
• Deniable on the basis of new knowledge w/o
the necessity of contradiction
• The color of water is blue (later when you put
it in glass, you find that water has no color)

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 Procedural Knowledge

Knowing how to do something:

• Fix a watch
• Install a window
• Brush your teeth
• Ride a bicycle

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 Declarative Knowledge
• Refers to knowing that something is true or false

• Usually associated with declarative statements

• E.g., “Don’t touch that hot wire.”

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 Tacit Knowledge
• Unconscious knowledge because it cannot
expressed by a language

• Cannot be expressed by language

• E.g., knowing how to move your hand, breath,

etc.

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 Knowledge in Rule-Based
Systems
• Knowledge is part of a hierarchy.

• Knowledge refers to rules that are activated by

facts or other rules.

• Activated rules produce new facts or conclusions.

• Conclusions are the end-product of inferences

when done according to formal rules.

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 Expert Systems vs. Humans

• Expert systems infer – reaching conclusions

as the end product of a chain of steps called
inferencing when done according to formal
rules.

• Humans reason

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 Expert Systems vs. ANS
• ANS does not make inferences but searches for
underlying patterns.

• Expert systems
o Draw inferences using facts
o Separate data from noise
o Transform data into information
o Transform information into knowledge

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 21

 Productions

A number of knowledge-representation techniques

have been devised:
• Rules
• Semantic nets
• Frames
• Scripts
• Logic
• Conceptual graphs

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 Semantic Nets
• A classic representation technique for
propositional information
• Propositions – a form of declarative knowledge,
stating facts (true/false)
• Propositions are called “atoms” – cannot be
further subdivided.
• Semantic nets consist of nodes (objects, concepts,
situations) and arcs (relationships between them).

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 Common Types of Links

• IS-A – relates an instance or individual to a

generic class

• A-KIND-OF – relates generic nodes to generic

nodes

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 Two Types of Nets

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 25

 General Organization of a
PROLOG System

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 PROLOG and Semantic Nets
• In PROLOG, predicate expressions consist of the
predicate name, followed by zero or more
arguments enclosed in parentheses, separated by
commas.
• Example:
mother(becky,heather)
means that becky is the mother of heather

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 27

 PROLOG Continued
• Programs consist of facts and rules in the
general form of goals.
• General form: p:- p1, p2, …, pN
p is called the rule’s head and the pi
represents the subgoals
• Example:
spouse(x,y) :- wife(x,y)
x is the spouse of y if x is the wife of y
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 28
 Schemata
• Knowledge Structure – an ordered collection of
knowledge – not just data.
• Semantic Nets – are shallow knowledge
structures – all knowledge is contained in nodes
and links.
• Schema is a more complex knowledge structure
than a semantic net.
• In a schema, a node is like a record which may
contain data, records, and/or pointers to nodes.

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 29

 Frames
• One type of schema is a frame (or script – time-
ordered sequence of frames).
• Frames are useful for simulating commonsense
knowledge.
• Semantic nets provide 2-dimensional knowledge;
frames provide 3-dimensional.
• Frames represent related knowledge about
narrow subjects having much default knowledge.

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 Frames Continued
• A frame is a group of slots and fillers that defines
a stereotypical object that is used to represent
generic / specific knowledge.
• Commonsense knowledge is knowledge that is
generally known.
• Prototypes are objects possessing all typical
characteristics of whatever is being modeled.
• Problems with frames include allowing
unrestrained alteration / cancellation of slots.

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 Car Frame

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 Logic and Sets
• Knowledge can also be represented by symbols
of logic.

• Logic is the study of rules of exact reasoning –

inferring conclusions from premises.

• Automated reasoning – logic programming in the

context of expert systems.

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 Forms of Logic
• Earliest form of logic was based on the syllogism
– developed by Aristotle.
• Syllogisms – have two premises that provide
evidence to support a conclusion.
• Example:
– Premise: All cats are climbers.
– Premise: Garfield is a cat.
– Conclusion: Garfield is a climber.

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 34

 Venn Diagrams
• Venn diagrams can be used to represent
knowledge.
• Universal set is the topic of discussion.
• Subsets, proper subsets, intersection, union ,
contained in, and complement are all familiar
terms related to sets.
• An empty set (null set) has no elements.

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 35

 Venn Diagrams

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 36

 Propositional Logic
• Formal logic is concerned with syntax of
statements, not semantics.
• Syllogism:
• All goons are loons.
• Zadok is a goon.
• Zadok is a loon.

• The words may be nonsense, but the form is

correct – this is a “valid argument.”

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 Boolean vs. Aristotelian Logic
• Existential import – states that the subject of the
argument must have existence.

• “All elves wear pointed shoes.” – not allowed

under Aristotelian view since there are no elves.

• Boolean view relaxes this by permitting

reasoning about empty sets.

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 38

 Intersecting Sets

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 39

 Boolean Logic
• Defines a set of axioms consisting of symbols to
represent objects / classes.
• Defines a set of algebraic expressions to
manipulate those symbols.
• Using axioms, theorems can be constructed.
• A theorem can be proved by showing how it is
derived from a set of axioms.

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 Features of Propositional Logic

• Concerned with the subset of declarative

sentences that can be classified as true or false.
• We call these sentences “statements” or
“propositions”.
• Paradoxes – statements that cannot be classified
as true or false.
• Open sentences – statements that cannot be
answered absolutely.

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 Features Continued
• Compound statements – formed by using logical
connectives (e.g., AND, OR, NOT, conditional,
and biconditional) on individual statements.

• Material implication – p  q states that if p is true,

it must follow that q is true.

• Biconditional – p  q states that p implies q and q

implies p.
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 42
 Features Continued
• Tautology – a statement that is true for all
possible cases.

• Contradiction – a statement that is false for all

possible cases.

• Contingent statement – a statement that is neither

a tautology nor a contradiction.

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 Truth Tables

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 44

 Universal Quantifier
• The universal quantifier, represented by the
symbol  means “for every” or “for all”.
( x) (x is a rectangle  x has four sides)

• The existential quantifier, represented by the

symbol  means “there exists”.
( x) (x – 3 = 5)

• Limitations of predicate logic – most quantifier.

Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition 45
 Summary
• We have discussed:
– Elements of knowledge
– Knowledge representation
– Some methods of representing knowledge
• Fallacies may result from confusion between
form of knowledge and semantics.
• It is necessary to specify formal rules for expert
systems to be able to reach valid conclusions.
• Different problems require different tools.
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