The Role of Verbal and Visual Metaphors in Biological Theories

The work reported in this extended abstract has evolved from research concerned with the characterisation of domains for the development of knowledge based systems (KBSs) (Paton et al, 1991 and 1993). It has long been recognised that knowledge acquisition is a key stage in the construction of a KBS but also that it presents a major hurdle to a designer. We had sought to approach this problem by attempting to present a detailed analysis of a domain so that the tasks, the usual computable products of knowledge acquisition, could be placed in context. In this case the context describes the cognitive domain of an expert and the real world domain in which he or she solves problems and also makes references. It became very clear that one of the key underlying cognitive structures involved in the maintenance and evolution of a domain (as a cognitive object) is the theoretical framework which the expert uses to structure the domain and solve problems. Current approaches to knowledge acquisition favour the generation of models which are intermediate between the real world or an expert, and a piece of computer code. We have argued that these approaches remain shallow because they do not address the problem of how to interpret what people say and do in that deeper modelling relations which a theory supports are not made explicit. As our work has progressed we have found that the theoretical nature of domains is an extremely important area for investigation.