2006/12/16 by Uygar Özesmi, Uygar Ozesmi, Ozesmi, Uygar +2
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · #Cognitive Computing and Networks #Cognitive Science and Mapping #FOS: Biological sciences #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Other Quantitative Biology (q-bio.OT) #q-bio.NC #q-bio.OT
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.q-bio/0612030
8 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2006/12/16 · openalex publication_date 2006/12/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many networks in natural and human-made systems exhibit scale-free properties and are small worlds. Now we show that people's understanding of complex systems in their cognitive maps also follow a scale-free topology (Pk = k-lambda, lambda [1.24,3.03]; r2 <= 0.95). People focus on a few attributes, as indicated by a fat tail in the probability distribution of total degree. These few attributes are related with many other variables in the system. Many more attributes have very few connections. The scale-free properties in the cognitive maps of people arise despite the fact that their average distances are not different (Wilcoxon sign-rank test, W=78, p=0.75) than random networks of the same size and connection density. The scale-free property manifests itself in the higher hierarchical structure compared to random networks (Wilcoxon sign-rank test, W=12, p=0.03). People use relatively short explanations to describe systems. These findings may help us to better understand people's perceptions, especially when it comes to decision-making, conflict resolution, politics and management.