1040
6, DECEMBER 2011
On the Temporal Granularity in Fuzzy
Cognitive Maps
Giovanni Acampora, Member, IEEE, and Vincenzo Loia, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractThe theory of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) is a pow-
erful approach to modeling human knowledge that is based on
causal reasoning. Taking advantage of fuzzy logic and cognitive
map theories, FCMs enable system designers to model complex
frameworks by defining degrees of causality between causal ob-
jects. They can be used to model and represent the behavior of
simple and complex systems by capturing and emulating the hu-
man being to describe and present systems in terms of tolerance,
imprecision, and granulation of information. However, FCMs lack
the temporal concept that is crucial in many real-world appli-
cations, and they do not offer formal mechanisms to verify the
behavior of systems being represented, which limit conventional
FCMs in knowledge representation. In this paper, we present an
extension to FCMs by exploiting a theory from formal languages,
namely, the timed automata, which bridges the aforementioned in-
adequacies. Indeed, the theory of timed automata enables FCMs
to effectively deal with a double-layered temporal granularity, ex-
tending the standard idea of B-time that characterizes the iterative
nature of a cognitive inference engine and offering model checking
techniques to test the cognitive and dynamic comportment of the
framework being designed.
Index TermsFuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs), fuzzy systems,
systems dynamic, timed automata.
I. INTRODUCTION
UZZY cognitive maps (FCMs) represent a well-defined
F approach to modeling knowledge and inference that are
the most important components of any intelligent system. They
were initially introduced by Kosko [1] to model systems into the
area of knowledge domains, for instance, political science, mil-
itary science, history, international relations, and organization
theory. They have recently emerged as a powerful modeling and
simulation technique that is applicable to numerous areas. For
instance, FCMs have been exploited to model the behavior of
complex applications as control plant systems, electrical circuit
analysis, cooperative manmachines environments, distributed
group-decision support, adaptation and learning, etc. [2][4].
FCMs are the inference networks that use cyclic, directed
graphs to represent the fuzzy causal relationships between fuzzy
concepts, but unlike feedforward neural networks, FCMs feed-
back cycles enable a temporal dependence that classifies FCMs
Manuscript received June 18, 2010; revised January 8, 2011; accepted April
14, 2011. Date of publication June 16, 2011; date of current version December
5, 2011.
The authors are with the Department of Computer Science, University
of Salerno, Fisciano, Salerno 84084, Italy (e-mail: gacampora@unisa.it;
loia@unisa.it).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TFUZZ.2011.2159799
1063-6706/$26.00 2011 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO.
as a collection of discrete-time recurrent irregular neural net-
works [5]. Moreover, different from neural networks, FCMs are
relatively flexible and simple to use to model human knowl-
edge: The important concepts of systems are modeled as graph
vertices and the causal relationships between them are repre-
sented as arcs; the weight of an edge indicates the relationship
strength between the related concepts. Unlike typical expert
systems that explicitly implement IFTHEN rules, FCMs model
rules by means of a simple adjacency matrix, and the FCMs
inference engine is based on an easy, iterative, and numeric pro-
cess. Consequently, FCMs are able to represent knowledge and
implement inference operators with greater flexibility, as com-
pared with many other available methods. Nevertheless, in spite
of these benefits, conventional FCMs are not capable to deal with
the concept of time in a direct way. In consequence, real (social,
political, mechanical, electronic, etc.) systems ineluctably have
dynamic behaviors that FCMs are unable to model.
In this discuss about the proposal of a formal approach to
support the definition of a new timed cognitive inference en-
gine, which is named timed-automata-based fuzzy cognitive map
(TAFCM), that is able to improve FCMs in terms of represen-
tation, simulation, and validation. In order to achieve this aim,
the proposal relies on a double-layered temporal granularity,
where the low-level layer is based on well-known FCMs timing
mechanisms, such as the base time (B-time) that is introduced
by Carvalho [6], whereas the high-level layer proposes a novel
timing mechanism that is named top time (T-time). T-time acts
as a supervisor mechanism that exploits low-level concepts in
order to provide FCMs with new timing mechanisms, i.e., the
cognitive era and cognitive configuration, that further improve
the time representation in qualitative system dynamics. In par-
ticular, this synergic approach enables the representation of a
generic system as a biological entity that lives its existence by
crossing a sequence of time periods (cognitive eras), each one
representing the longest interval time in which the system does
not change its cognitive configuration, i.e., its concepts, causal
relationships, and the B-time value. The double-layered tempo-
ral granularity and the T-time idea will be integrated with FCMs
by means of timed automata theory [7], which is largely ex-
ploited to represent complex systems by means of a collection
of states and transitions depending upon temporal events.
Our method is innovative in that for the first time in the liter-
ature, we model cognitive systems with a well-defined dynamic
representation, which is based on a solid mathematical founda-
tion. In consequence, other than purely temporal benefits, this
choice provides system verification techniques able to be used
early in the system design cycle to detect logical bugs before
it is implemented. Moreover, because the proposed approach
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS
clearly separates temporal details from cognitive features of a
given system, it strongly simplifies the system design stage, as
will be shown in Section VI.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, related works
are presented. Sections III and IV are, respectively, devoted to
introduce the basic concepts about the timed automata and FCM.
In Section V, which represents the paper core, we present the
formal definition of TAFCMs. Finally, Section VI is devoted
to highlight the benefits that are derived from the TAFCMs
modeling through a set of experiments together with the related
performances analysis.
II. RELATED WORKS
The first part of this section is devoted to introduce some
real-world scenarios that are modeled through FCMs, whereas
the second part presents some of the most important temporal
extensions of FCMs.
A. Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Real-World Applications
Initially, FCMs have been used in different research [8] and
application fields to plan and make decisions in the field of in-
ternational relations and political developments [9], [10] and to
analyze graph theoretic behavior [11]. Successively, they have
been proposed as a generic system for decision analysis [12] and
for distributed cooperative agents [13]. In the control-related
themes, FCMs have been used to model and support enhanced
control environments [14], [15] to represent failure models and
effects analysis for a system model [16] and to model the super-
visor of control systems [17].
Stylios and Groumpos [18] developed a novel soft computing
approach to model the supervisor of manufacturing systems by
the usage of FCMs.
FCMs were used as a computationally inexpensive technique
to develop actors intelligence in a virtual world [19]. Simu-
lations that involve human actors might combine FCMs with
expert systems in order to model the soft, emotional aspect of
human decision making, as well as the formal, logical side. An
FCM links causal events, actors, values, goals, and trends in a
fuzzy feedback dynamical system.
FCM-based models [20] were proposed as a methodology
to effectively understand how neophyte web users form the
cognitive neurological networks that result in a mental pathway,
or cognitive map, that makes the route more navigable to further
information, as well as the information they set out to find.
In [21], the use of an FCM to analyze the diffusion process
of a data warehouse in a bank was described.
In [22], a formal methodology that is based on FCMs to rep-
resent different types of knowledge in a collection of intelligent
agents was introduced.
FCMs and fuzzy rule bases are used to support the causal
knowledge acquisition and reasoning processes. In [23], an in-
tegrated process is presented for rating of the intensity of causal
relationship generating mean FCMs, assessing group consen-
sus, and supporting the building of group consensus. In [24], an
extension of the FCM was proposed, where each concept can
have its own value set, which depends on how precisely it needs
1041
to be described in the network. The value set can be a binary set,
a fuzzy set, or a continuous interval. In addition, the procedure
of how the causes take effect is modeled by a dynamic system.
B. Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Temporal Issues
In spite of their wide applicability, FCMs lack the temporal
concept to support long-term, dynamic problems. For this rea-
son, several extended approaches have been proposed in order
to try to solve this important issue.
The extended FCM (EFCM) and the fuzzy time cognitive map
(FTCM) [25] were proposed in 1992 and 1995, respectively, to
extend FCMs with a discrete temporal domain in which time lags
were inserted between the evolving iterations, and the delaying
of the effect was studied. Later, decaying was introduced in
1997 as an independent attribute of concepts by Tsadiras et al.
[26]. Unfortunately, these approaches naively use deterministic
values to represent, in an ad hoc fashion, the delay present in
a causal relationship; this strategy is not at all applicable to
modeling the dynamics of a system. Rather, it is important to
take a holistic view of the system for which FCMs should be
designed in accordance with its dynamic behaviors.
Another important result is given from fuzzy cognitive net-
works (FCNs) [27]: An alternative operational extension of
FCMs to support the close interaction with the system they
describe and, consequently, become appropriate for control ap-
plications and adaptive decision making. This improves standard
FCMs by introducing 1) the representation level (the cognitive
graph); 2) the updating mechanism that receives feedback from
the real system; and 3) the storage of the acquired knowledge
throughout the operation. FCNs have been successfully applied
to model a maximum power point tracker in order to improve
energy conversion efficiency [28].
More recently, a significant approach, i.e., the dynamical cog-
nitive network (DCN), was proposed by Miao and Liu [29].
DCNs are extensions of FCMs in a serious attempt to model
dynamics in a continuous time domain. Based on the theory
of dynamic systems, Miao and Liu built a DCN that supports
FCMs, CMs, and nonlinear systems. Theoretically, DCNs can
support a full set of time-related features. It is also the first
paper in the literature to study the two aspects of the causality
separately, i.e., causes and effects. However, the DCN relies on
the Laplacian framework to describe the causal relationships.
The transformation between fuzzy knowledge and Laplacian
functions imposes more modeling efforts to system designers.
Over the past few years, temporalized FCM [30] has been
proposed to define a complete discrete temporal extension of
the FCM. To reduce the complexities that are brought by the
temporalization, a design approach was developed to construct
the map, by the use of simplified patterns and fuzzy logic-
based effect functions to capture fuzzy knowledge from domain
experts.
However, one of the most significant brands of research in
the field of FCMs applied to systems dynamics is that related
to rule-based FCMs (RB-FCMs) [31], [32]. RB-FCMs are cog-
nitive maps that, unlike FCMs, use fuzzy variables that are de-
fined through fuzzy membership functions to deal with systems
1042 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011

concepts. More precisely, RB-FCMs are fuzzy rule-base sys-

tems that deal with feedback in order to face with the com-
plexity of several qualitative systems. From a temporal point of
view RB-FCMs exploits important concepts, such as implicit
time and delays and define a novel important parameter named
B-time. B-time represents the resolution of the simulation or, in
other words, the highest level of temporal detail that a simulation
can provide in the modeled system. B-time is used to diversify
the behavior of a given FCM by changing the duration (in terms
of seconds, minutes, days, etc.) of a single inference iteration.
The choice of B-time is strongly dependent upon the system
being modeled. It could be 1 h, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, and so on.
Several applications highlights the benefits that are obtained by
the exploitation of RB-FCMs and B-time [33], [34]. Besides B-
time, RB-FCMs introduced the idea of meta-states that models
complex temporal and spatial propagation processes. RB-FCMs
augmented with meta-states [35] provide several benefits by the Fig. 1. Example of a simple FCM.
usage of simple state diagrams, where each meta-state con-
tains the most suitable RB-FCM that is capable of modeling
a system under certain conditions. This idea seems similar to
press the type of influence from one concept to the others. The
TAFCMs proposal but significant differences characterize the
weights of the edges between concept Ci and concept Cj could
two approaches. In particular, meta-states achieve a high level
be positive Wij > 0, which means that an increase in the value
of semantic abstraction by tagging each automaton node with
of concept Ci leads to the increase of the value of concept Cj ,
an expressive label that is useful to highlight the behavior of
whereas a decrease in the value of concept Ci leads to the de-
the system under fixed conditions. Different from meta-states,
crease of the value of concept Cj , or there is negative causality
the nodes of a TAFCM cannot be tagged with a semantic label
Wij < 0, which means that an increase in the value of concept
because, as will be shown hereafter, each TAFCM node may
Ci leads to the decrease of the value of concept Cj and vice
contain different FCMs (cognitive configurations) in different
versa. Fig. 1 shows an example of an FCM that deals with pub-
times (cognitive eras). This choice makes a TAFCM more flexi-
lic health issues in a city. A mathematical model is associated
ble from a time representation point of view. Indeed, this choice
with the graphical representation of the FCM, which consists of
enables a kind of cognitive tuning that modifies and, in con-
a 1 n state vector A that includes the values of the n concepts
sequence, improves the behavior of an FCM that belongs to
and an n n weight matrix W that gathers the weights Wij of
a given temporal state (meta-state or cognitive era). Another
the interconnections between the n concepts of the FCM. The
important difference is related to the model checking activity.
matrix W has n rows and n columns, where n equals the total
Indeed, because the TAFCMs are based on a solid mathematical
number of distinct concepts of the FCM. Although the original
foundation, it provides system verification techniques able to
Koskos FCM definition does not use previous concept values
be used early in the system design cycle to detect logical bugs
to infer the new ones, in this study, an alternative definition is
before it is implemented (see Section V-A1).
used [36]. By the use of this definition, the value of each con-
cept is influenced by the values of the connected concepts with
III. FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS AND TEMPORAL DRAWBACKS appropriate weights and by its previous value. Therefore, the
value Ai for each concept Ci is computed by the following rule:
An FCM is a directed graph with feedback capable of model-
ing systems through collection of concepts and causal relations
among concepts. Concepts in the FCM are represented by nodes
n

in a directed graph, and edges in the graph represent the causal Ai = f Aj Wij + Aold
i (1)
influences between the concepts. The value of a node represents j=1
j = i
the degree to which the concept is active in the system at a par-
ticular time and is a function of the values of all incoming edges
and the values of the concepts that originate these edges. In a where Ai is the activation level of concept at iteration t + 1; Aj
loose sense, an FCM functions like associative neural networks is the activation level of the concept Cj at iteration t; Aold
i is
whose neurons are assigned concept meanings, e.g., smoking, the activation level of concept Ci at iteration t (it is clear that
lung cancer, speeding, traffic violation, etc., and the intercon- the variable t just represents the iteration number between two
nection weights represent relationships between these concepts. successive FCM matrix computation); Wj i is the weight of the
It is important to note that all the values in the FCM are fuzzy, interconnection between Cj and Ci ; and f is a threshold func-
i.e., concepts take values in the range between [0, 1] and the tion, i.e., a function used to reduce unbounded inputs to a strict
edges weights are in the interval [1, 1]. Between concepts, range. This threshold mapping is a variation of the fuzzification
there are three possible types of causal relationships that ex- process in fuzzy logic. The threshold functions that are used in
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS
TABLE I
FUZZY COGNITIVE MAP BEHAVIOR
the calculation of FCM are, mainly, of two kinds:
x, if 0 x 1
f (x) = 0, if x < 0
1, if x > 1
and
1 tively, the third and the fourth cognitive era. In this view, a
f (x) = . (2)
1 + ex
In short, FCMs inference engine iteratively computes a se-
quence of vector transformations that is mainly used to answer
a whatif question based on an initial scenario that is repre-
sented by a vector S0 = (s1 , s2 , . . . , sn ) with si [0, 1] for
i = 1, . . . , n, where si = 1 indicates that concept Ci holds com-
pletely in the initial state, and si = 0 indicates that Ci does not
hold in the initial state. Then, starting with t = 0 and A = S0 , the
inference engine repeatedly computes the value of concepts Ai
with i = 1, . . . , n. This process continues until system conver-
gence may be achieved, i.e., when Ai = Aold i for i = 1, . . . , n.
The final vector represents the final answer to the whatif ques-
tion. Because the FCM convergence is an issue of discussion,
in this study, we deal with FCMs that satisfy the convergence
conditions presented in [37] and [38], which guarantee the map
convergence when it is powered by sigmoid functions [see (2)].
Table I shows the behavior of FCM that is depicted in Fig. 1
that is powered with sigmoid functions; from the table, it is clear
that the system converges after iteration 10.
However, this method of modeling and simulation is not flex-
ible enough to deal with more complex systems that change
configurations. In other words, convergent FCMs could not be
able to model the behavior of systems that do not achieve the
so-called steady state and whose life cycle is composed of a se-
quence of different transient states that can be characterized by
various cognitive configurations, for instance, social or econom-
ical environments that are influenced by government decisions
occurring in different and unpredictable times. In this paper, we
attempt to bridge this gap by the introduction of an alternative
view of systems life cycle to build a method capable of formally
representing complex stochastic frameworks.
We envision that a generic system may be considered as a
biological entity that lives its existence by crossing a sequence
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Fig. 2. Life cycle of a woman.
of time periods named cognitive eras. As will be better depicted
in the following sections, a cognitive era is the longest interval
time in which the system does not change its cognitive config-
uration, i.e., its concepts, causal relationships, and the B-time
value. For example, Fig. 2 shows the life cycle of a woman: Its
cognitive eras are defined by means of a collection on ages in-
tervals [0, 18], ]18, 25], ]25, 35], ]35, 70], ]70, 100], and the con-
cepts menopause and fracture threshold characterize, respec-
system starts its life in an initial cognitive era that is defined
through an initial FCM (the initial cognitive configuration), and
its dynamic behavior is defined by a sequence of cognitive map
transformations introducing, for example, new concepts and
new causal relationships.
In order to embed the cognitive era idea into the context
of FCMs, it is necessary to introduce a temporal abstraction
capable of dealing with the cognitive eras directly and formally.
Let us call this novel concept T-time, and the timed automata
are the formal methodology implementing it. T-time can be
viewed as a mechanism that changes the cognitive configuration
of an FCM by moving the system from a cognitive era to the
successive one. It is clear that the standard FCMs are a special
case in that they live only one cognitive era that is characterized
by a constant number of concepts, causal relationships, and the
B-time length.
Starting from these considerations, we propose a novel ap-
proach to cognitive modeling that is able to answer such ques-
tions as whatifwhen, where when refers to a given cognitive
era.
IV. TIMED AUTOMATA
A timed automaton is a standard finite-state nondeterministic
automaton that is extended with a finite collection of real-valued
clocks, which provides a straightforward way to represent time-
related events. The transitions of a timed automaton are labeled
with a guard (a condition on clocks), an action or symbol on
alphabet , and a clock reset (a subset of clocks to be reset).
Timed automata start computations with all clocks set to zero,
and clocks increase simultaneously and uniformly with time,
while the automaton state is located in a given node. Different
from standard nondeterministic machine, transitions in timed
automata can be taken if the clocks fulfill the related guards.
1044 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011

By taking transition, all clocks that belong to the clock reset

collection will be set to zero, whereas the remaining keep their
values [39]. The transitions occur instantaneously.
The set of behaviors expressed by a system that is modeled by
means of a timed automaton is defined by a timed language, i.e.,
a collection of timed words. Both timed concepts are defined as
follows.
Definition 1: A time sequence = 1 2 is an infinite se-
quence of time values i R with i > 0, which satisfies the
following constraints.
1) Monotonicity: increases strictly monotonically, i.e., i <
i+1 for all i i + 1.
2) Progress: For every t R, there is some i 1, such that
i t.
Then, a timed word on alphabet is a pair (, ), where
= 1 2 is an infinite word over , and is a time sequence.
A timed language over is a set of timed words on .
Definition 2: Let X be a finite collection of real-valued vari- Fig. 3. Timed automaton.
ables named clocks; then, the set (X) of clock constraints is
defined inductively by
Definition 4: A run r, which is denoted by (s, ), of a timed
:= x c|c x||1 2 transition table , S, S0 , C, E over a timed word (, ) is an
infinite sequence of the form
where x is a clock in X, and c is a constant in Q, i.e., the set of
nonnegative rationals. r : s0 , 0 
1
s1 , 1 
2
s2 , 2 
3

A clock interpretation for the set X of clocks assigns a real 1 2 3

value to each clock, i.e., it is a mapping from X to R. A clock
interpretation for X satisfies a clock constraint over X if
and only if evaluates to true by the use of the values given
by .
Now, a precise definition of a timed transition table, which
with si S and i [C R], for all i 0, satisfying the fol-
lowing requirements.
1) Initiation: s0 S0 and 0 (x) = 0 for all x C.
2) Consecution: For all i 1, there is an edge in E of the form
si1 , si , i , i , i , such that (i1 + i i1 ) satisfies
define the timed automaton behavior, is given. i , and i equals [i  0](i1 + i i1 ).
Definition 3: A timed transition table A is a tuple As an example, consider the timed automata that are shown in
, S, S0 , C, E, where we have the following. Fig. 3. It has two clocks x and y, two control locations l0 and l1 ,
1) is a finite alphabet. and an edge from the control locations l0 to l1 labeled with the
2) S is a finite set of states. guard y 1 x 2, the action name a, and the reset set {x}.
3) S0 S is a set of start states. By the assumption that all clock variables are initially set to zero
4) C is finite set of clocks. and the initial control location is l0 , the graph starts in the state
5) E S S 2C (C) is the collection of (l0 , {x = y = 0}). As the clocks increase synchronously with
transitions. time, it may evolve to all states of the form (l0 , {x = y = t}),
An edge s, s
, a, ,  represents a transition from state s to where t is a nonnegative real number. At any state with t [1, 2],
state s
on the input symbol a. The set C represents the it may change to the state (l1 , {x = 0, y = t}) by following
collection of clocks to be reset with this transition, and is a the edge from l0 to l1 that resets x. However, it can also be
clock constraint over C. idle forever in the location l0 since there is no way of forcing
If (, ) is a timed word that is viewed as an input to an au- progress in the semantics of timed automata.
tomaton, it presents the symbol i at time i . If each symbol i is The timed transition table, together with the run concept, is
interpreted to denote an event occurrence, then the correspond- the main notion used in our approach to embedding dynamism
ing component i is interpreted as the time of occurrence of i . in the standard FCM definition.
Given a timed word (, ), the timed transition table A starts in
one of its start states at time 0 with all clocks initialized to 0.
As time advances, the values of all clocks change, reflecting the V. MERGING TIMED AUTOMATA AND FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS
elapsed time. On the time i , A transits from s to s
by the use In an attempt to solve the temporal drawbacks of the FCM that
of some transition of the form s, s
, i , ,  reading the input is discussed in Section III, we propose TAFCMs that add tempo-
i , if the current values of clocks satisfy . With this transition, ral concepts to the standard FCM by the use of a timed automaton
the clocks in are reset to 0 and, thus, start continuing time with whose possible behaviors define all the potential sequences of
respect to the time of occurrence of this transition. Formally, cognitive eras (and the related cognitive configurations) that the
this timed behavior is captured by introducing runs of timed system could cover during its life cycle. In particular, TAFCMs
transition tables. improve FCMs by associating each state in a timed automaton
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS
Fig. 4. Timed automaton defining the cognitive eras of a woman.
with a cognitive configuration, which describes the behavior
of a system in a time interval. Therefore, TAFCMs are able to
model dynamic changes in cognitive representation of system
and, consequently, perform a more realistic and coherent cog-
nitive computation. A TAFCM, as will be formally defined at
the end of this section, has two components: a timed automaton
that describes the dynamic evolution of a system and an FCM
that models the cognitive behavior of system during first phase
of its existence. Once the automaton computation starts over
a given timed word, the state transitions will adaptively mod-
ify the initial FCM in order to model time dependence of the
system.
With the theory of timed automata, it is possible for us to de-
fine the concept of cognitive eras and develop the related transi-
tion mechanism. In particular, the run concept of timed automata
may represent the formal process to define the progression of
cognitive eras. Indeed, intuitively, a run is a collection of se-
quential discrete transitions, where each transition denotes an
event that releases a task and the guard on the transition (i.e.,
a temporal constraint) specifies all the possible arriving times
of the event. Then, in the context of the cognitive representa-
tion, the ith discrete transition can be used to move a system
among cognitive eras and release a task changing the cognitive
configuration of the system by
1) transforming the graph that represents the cognitive map
during ith cognitive era into a novel, topologically differ-
ent FCM modeling the system during (i + 1)th cognitive
era;
2) changing the value of the B-time parameter.
Consequently, the collection of discrete transitions of a timed
automaton and the related temporal constraints define the sorted
collection of cognitive eras lived from the modeled system.
Fig. 4 shows a sample of timed automaton that defines the
cognitive eras for the example of the life cycle of a woman. In
particular, the woman life cycle automaton is able to recognize
only the timed word (a, 18)(a, 25)(a, 35)(a, 70)(a, 100), where
1045
Fig. 5. T-time and double-layered granularity.
the clock x denotes the woman age, and the symbol a is used
to denote the event activating a given discrete transition. Conse-
quently, this timed word defines the switching among successive
cognitive eras. Obviously, a more complex network of cognitive
eras could be defined by means of a complex timed automaton
exploiting a collection a discrete transitions that are character-
ized by temporal constraints involving aggregation of Boolean
clauses that are interconnected by typical Boolean operators.
This way, a system lives an unpredictable sequence of cognitive
eras that are defined by a timed word in a timed language L that
is recognized by the corresponding timed automaton.
It is clear that different instances of the same system may
use different words in L to model their life cycle conceptually
similar to the case that two woman systems may transit to the
menopause mode in different times; in this case, the temporal
behavior of the first woman will be defined by a given timed
word, say wwom an 1 , whereas the temporal behavior of the second
woman will be defined by a different timed word, say wwom an 2 .
Fig. 5 shows how the proposed approach moves the dynamic
view of FCMs from a single-layered granularity (B-time) to a
double-layered granularity (B-time + T-time) and how the idea
of T-time is able to modify the cognitive configuration of a
system.
In Section V-A, we will show that the T-time can be im-
plemented through a timed automaton and how it is capable
of dynamically changing the cognitive view of a given system.
These results will be achieved by
1) introducing a novel definition of FCM that is based on the
graphs theory;
2) modifying the timed automata definition by the introduc-
tion of the concepts of cognitive edges, timed cognitive
transition table, cognitive evolution, and cognitive run;
3) showing that the TAFCMs are able to modify systems
configuration according to cognitive eras.
1046
These properties will allow us to formally introduce the
TAFCMs.
A. Timed-Automata-Based Fuzzy Cognitive Maps
The first step toward the definition of TAFCMs is to redefine
the standard FCMs by means of the graph theory. (A similar
representation approach may also be used for the RBFCM.)
From this point of view, an FCM F can be defined through
a graph, i.e., M = (V, E), that models the map structure, a
function a that associate a real value with each map concept, a
function w that associate a real value with each map relationship,
and a real value btim e R that is used to model the iteration
length in cognitive inference. Formally, an FCM F is a 4-tuple
(M, a, w, btim e ), where
M = (V, E)
V = {ci |i = 1, . . . , n}
E = {(ci , cj )|ci , cj V }
a : V [0, 1]
w : E [1, 1]
btim e R.
Here, V is the set of nodes that compose the FCM; a is a function
that associates an activation value with each concept in V ; E is
the set of causal relationships between concepts; w is a function
that associates an edge in E with a real weight in [1, 1]; btim e
is a real variable modeling the length of a cognitive iteration;
in the context of TAFCM, the B-time is used to determine how
many cognitive iterations have to be computed during a given
cognitive era.
Examples 1 and 2 show two samples of an FCM modeled
through (3). In particular, these examples show the FCM of
Fig. 1 at, respectively, iterations 0 and 4.
Example 1: The following definitions are related to the FCM
that is shown in Fig. 1 at iteration 0:
M = (V, E)
V = {c1 , c2 , c3 , c4 , c5 , c6 , c7 }
a(c1 ) = 0.300
a(c2 ) = 0.300
a(c3 ) = 0.300
a(c4 ) = 0.300
a(c5 ) = 0.300
a(c6 ) = 0.300
a(c7 ) = 0.300
E = {(c1 , c4 ), (c1 , c3 ), (c2 , c1 ), (c3 , c2 ), (c3 , c5 ),
(c4 , c7 ), (c5 , c6 ), (c5 , c7 ), (c6 , c1 ), (c7 , c6 )}
w((c1 , c4 )) = 0.9, w((c1 , c3 )) = 0.6
w((c2 , c1 )) = 0.1, w((c3 , c2 )) = 0.7
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011
w((c3 , c5 )) = 0.9, w((c4 , c7 )) = 0.9
w((c5 , c6 )) = 0.9, w((c5 , c7 )) = 0.9
w((c6 , c1 )) = 0.3, w((c7 , c6 )) = 0.8. (4)
Example 2: The following definitions are related to the FCM
that is shown in Fig. 1 at iteration 4:
M = (V, E)
V = {c1 , c2 , c3 , c4 , c5 , c6 , c7 }
a(c1 ) = 0.395
a(c2 ) = 1.000
a(c3 ) = 0.927
a(c4 ) = 1.000
a(c5 ) = 1.000
a(c6 ) = 1.000
a(c7 ) = 0.085
(3)
E = {(c1 , c4 ), (c1 , c3 ), (c2 , c1 ), (c3 , c2 ), (c3 , c5 ),
(c4 , c7 ), (c5 , c6 ), (c5 , c7 ), (c6 , c1 ), (c7 , c6 )}
w((c1 , c4 )) = 0.9, w((c1 , c3 )) = 0.6
w((c2 , c1 )) = 0.1, w((c3 , c2 )) = 0.7
w((c3 , c5 )) = 0.9, w((c4 , c7 )) = 0.9
w((c5 , c6 )) = 0.9, w((c5 , c7 )) = 0.9
w((c6 , c1 )) = 0.3, w((c7 , c6 )) = 0.8. (5)
In other words, (4) and (5) represent the cognitive configura-
tion of the FCM that is shown in Fig. 1 during its first and fifth
cognitive eras.
The formal graph view of an FCM represents only a static vi-
sion of our cognitive system. The successive step is to introduce
a collection of operators able to transform the cognitive structure
that is defined in (3). These operators represent the fundamental
operations with which the proposed cognitive/dynamic models
are constructed. They will change the cognitive configuration of
a given FCM (M, a, w, btim e ) with M = (V, E) by following
the rules:
1) to add concepts;
2) to add causal relationships;
3) to remove concepts;
4) to remove causal relationships;
5) to magnify/reduce the strength of a causal relationships;
6) to magnify/reduce the level of system concept;
7) to modify the btim e value.
Definition 5 (Adding a Novel Cognitive Concept ): This
operator modifies in a direct way the set V that contains the
fuzzy cognitive concepts. Let ct be the concept to add to VC
and v [0, 1] the real value associated with the new concept ct .
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS 1047

Then, the behavior of is defined as follows: where the behavior of function, named w
, is the same as that
of w because E
E. Then, M
= (V, E
) is the graph that
VC
= VC {ct }
result from the  application, and w
is the weight function
a
: VC
[0, 1] with a
/VC = a and a
(ct ) = v. (6) of F
.
Definition 11 (Additive Modification of a Causal Relation-
Then, M
= (VC
, E) is the new graph that results from ap-
ship ): The operator named  modifies the value of a given
plication and a
is the new function that associates the concepts
causal relationship by adding it to a real value . This task is
with the corresponding values.
accomplished by opportunely redefining the weight-assignment
Definition 6 (Removing a Cognitive Concept ): The operator
function w. Let (ci , cj ) be the causal relationship to modify in
 removes a cognitive concept, named ct , from the concepts set
additive way; then, w
: E [1, 1] is the modified function
V . Then
VC
= VC {ct } that is defined as follows:

a
: VC
[0, 1] (7) w
((cl , cm ))

where the behavior of the function a
is the same as that of a w((cl , cm )), if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )


because VC
VC . Then, M
= (VC
, E) is the new graph that
w((cl , cm )) + , if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )


results from  application.
and 1 w((ci , cj )) + 1

Definition 7 (Additive Modification of a Cognitive Concept = 1, if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )
): This operator modifies the behavior of the function a by


and w((cl , cm )) + < 1
changing the value that is related to a concept ct VC in additive



way. Let r R be a real number; then
1, if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )
and w((cl , cm )) + > 1
a(cl ), if cl = ct

(12)
a(cl ) + r, if cl = ct and 0 a(ct ) + r 1
a
(cl ) = Then, M
= (V, E) is the new graph, and w
is its weight

1, if cl = ct and a(ct ) + r 1

function.
0, if cl = ct and a(ct ) + r 0. Definition 12 (Multiplicative Modification of a Causal Rela-
(8) tionship ): This operator changes the value of a given causal
Definition 8 (Multiplicative Modification of a Cognitive Con- relationship by multiplying it for a real value . Analogously to
cept ): This operator changes the behavior of the function a by the previous operator, this task is performed by redefining the
the modification of the value that is related to a concept ct VC weight-assignment function w. Let (ci , cj ) be the causal rela-
through a multiplicative constant. Let r R+ be a real number; tionship to modify in multiplicative way; then, w
: E [1, 1]
then is the modified function that is defined as follows:

a(cl ), if cl = ct
a
(cl ) = a(cl ) r, if cl = ct and 0 a(ct ) r 1 (9) w
((cl , cm ))


1, if cl = ct and a(ct ) r 1 w((cl , cm )), if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )



w((cl , cm )) , if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )
Definition 9 (Adding a Novel Cognitive Causal Relationship


and 1 w((ci , cj )) 1
): This operator is used to add a novel causal relationship to an
FCM F . Let (ci , cj ) be the causal relationship with ci , cj V = 1, if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )


and (ci , cj )  E, and let wij [1, 1] be the weight of rela-
and w((cl , cm )) < 1


tionship (ci , cj ); then


1, if (cl , cm ) = (ci , cj )
E
= E {(ci , cj )} and w((cl , cm )) > 1.
w
: E
[1, 1] with w
/E = w and w
((ci , cj )) = wij . (13)

(10) Then, M
= (V, E) is the new graph, and w
is its weight
function.
M
= (VC , E
) and w
are, respectively, the graph and weight Operators  and , which change the interconnection values
function that result from the application of the  operator. of a given FCM, take inspiration from FCNs (see Section II-B).
Definition 10 (Removing a Cognitive Causal Relationship Definition 13 (B-time Updating ): As we previously stated,
): This operator removes a given causal relationship from each cognitive era can be characterized by a different value of the
the collection of causal relationships E. Let (ci , cj ) be the re- B-time parameter. Because each cognitive era is determined by
lationship to be removed, with ci , cj V , (ci , cj ) E, and a given state of timed automaton modeling, the T-time concept
w((ci , cj )) = wij [1, 1]; then of our system (as will be shown in the following section), it is
E
= E {(ci , cj )} possible to define an operator  that assigns each automaton
state a real number (expressing the B-time value):
V
= V {ci , cj }
w
: E
[1, 1] (11) fBTim e : S R, btim e = fBTim e (s), and s S. (14)
1048 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011

Definition 14 (Cognitive Identity ): The operator  rep- S with a one or more cognitive configurations that are obtained
resents a simple function identity that transforms an FCM by sequential application over F 0 of the cognitive operators in
(M, a, w, btim e ) in itself. This operator does not have a prac- S S 2C (C) Cop . Then, we have the following,
tical usefulness, but it is necessary for the introduction of the Definition 17 (Cognitive evolution): Let TA = (F 0 , TM ) be
TAFCMs definition in a simpler way. a TAFCM that is defined over a timed cognitive transition table
Once the operators are defined, changing the FCM configu- , S, S0 , C, EC  with S = {s0 , s1 , . . . , s|S |1 } being the finite
ration, it is possible to define the cognitive operator set set of automaton states; let F be the collection of all FCMs that
are defined by means of (3) over a set {cl R : l = 1, . . . , k} of
Cop = {, , , , , , , , , }
initial cognitive concepts; let = {1 , 2 , . . . , || } be a subset
which allows us to redefine the timed automata concept in or- of operators in Cop used to define the edges in EC . Then, the
der to introduce a novel kind of transition edges to change the cognitive evolution over a state s0 S0 is
cognitive configuration of the modeled system. In particular, the
: N S F
following edges set is replaced to the standard transitions set
of timed automata defined, inductively, as follows.
1) Base case (i = 0). Let s0 S0 be an initial state of
EC S S 2 (C) Cop
C
(15)
, S, S0 , C, EC ; then
and the novel definition of timed automata that are based on
(0) = (s0 , F 0 ).
cognitive edges is as follows.
Definition 15: A timed cognitive transition table At is a tuple 2) Inductive step. Let (i 1), with i > 1, be the cognitive
, S, S0 , C, EC  where we have the following. pair that is defined as
1) is a finite alphabet.
(i 1) = (si1 , F i1 )
2) S is a finite set of states.
3) S0 S is a set of start states. where si1 S and F i1 F ; then
4) C is finite set of clocks.
(i) = (si , F i )
5) EC S S 2C (C) Cop is the collection
of cognitive transitions. An edge s, s
, a, , , , with with si S, F i = i (F i1 ), i and si1 , si , a,
Cop , produces the same effect of a standard transition , , i  EC .
s, s
, a, , , but it individuates the task that is defined The image of the function , i.e., I , can be finite or
by the operator Cop . The set C represents the infinite. This depends upon the topology of graph modeling the
collection of clocks to be reset with this transition, and component TM of the TAFCM. Indeed, if the topology of TM
is a clock constraint over C. contains cycles, then the edge si1 , si , a, , , i  EC can
We are now in a position to present a formal definition be crossed more times and, consequently, various FCM can be
of a TAFCM and the properties that characterize its dynamic associated with the same state sh S, i.e., sh st st+c 1
behavior. st+c 2 st+c k and {(st+c 1 , F t+c 1 ), (st+c 2 ,
Definition 16: A TAFCM T A is an ordered pair composed F t+c 2 ), . . . , (st+c k , F t+c k ), . . .} I .
by an FCM, i.e., F 0 = (M, a, w, btim e ) that represents an initial More intuitively, (17) shows the sequence of pairs composing
cognitive configuration of a system, together with a timed cogni- a cognitive evolution over s0 S0 together with the fuzzy cog-
tive transition table TM that represents the mathematical entity nitive transformations obtained by exploiting the i operators:
acting as the joining point between cognitivism and dynamism (0) : s0 S0 F0
in system modeling. Formally
1
TA = (F 0 , TM ) (16)
(1) : s1 S F1
The TAFCM properties that define the dynamic behavior of 2
a system are cognitive evolution and cognitive run.
In the following definitions, we will use the subsequent nota- (2) : s2 S F2
tion: the symbols si and i (i N) represent, respectively, the 3
(17)
states of an automaton that are defined by means of Definition .. ..
15 and the cognitive operators that are defined in the collection . .
Cop ; at the same time, the symbols sj and j (j N) represent j
an infinite collection of variables that assume, respectively, the
(j) : sj S Fj
value of states si and operators i .
The cognitive evolution is a mapping among the states S j +1
contained in TM and the collection of possible cognitive con- .. ..
figurations that are obtained starting from F 0 . Specifically, the . .
cognitive evolution is a mathematical succession, which is gen- Obviously, the cognitive evolution represents only a mapping
erated in an inductive way (by the usage of an approach similar to between the states of the timed automaton TM and the col-
the regular expression definition [40]), which maps each state in lection of cognitive configurations that are computable starting
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS 1049

from F 0 by the application of different sequence of operators in

; no dynamic aspects are considered in the definition of cogni-
tive evolution for which we introduce the concept of cognitive
run extending the initial idea of the run of the standard timed
transition table.
Definition 18: Let be a cognitive evolution; then, a cog-
nitive run rc is denoted by (s, v) of a timed transition table
, S, S0 , C, EC  over a timed word (, ), and a collection of
cognitive operators Cop is an infinite sequence of the form
1 ,1 2 ,2 3 ,3 Fig. 6. Initial cognitive configuration of ecosystem sample.
rc : s0 , 0  s1 , 1  s2 , 2 
1 2 3
to describe the cognitive/dynamic behavior of the system. Con-
with s S, i [C R], and i+1 Cop , for all i 0,
i
sequently, in order to simulate the behavior of a TAFCM during
which satisfy the following requirements.
the first n cognitive eras, the nth-order cognitive evolution and
1) Initiation: s0 S0 and 0 (x) = 0 for all x C.
cognitive run are introduced.
2) Consecution: For all i 1, there is an edge in E of the form
Definition 21 (nth-Order Cognitive Evolution): If is a cog-
si1 , si , i , i , i  such that (i1 + i i1 ) satisfies
nitive evolution, then the set
i , and i equals [i  0](i1 + i i1 ).
3) Atomicity: The operators i Cop are atomic operations
and their computation time is equal to 0, i.e., they do not
modify the duration of permanence in the automaton state
si , (i i1 ).
4) Evolution: Each state si of a pair si , i  in rc is mapped
on an FCM F i as described by the cognitive evolution .
5) Discrete Progression: The clocks progression is per-
formed in a discrete way by means of the clock period,
i.e., k Q. Specifically, k is the time amount between the
clock updating.
If TA = (F 0 , TM ) is a TAFCM that models a given system,
then the set of cognitive run rc that is defined over the timed
language L, generated by TM , completely describes the collec-
tion dynamic behaviors of the system, whereas the cognitive run
rc defined over a single word wi L defines a precise dynamic
behavior of the system, i.e., wi defines the T-time.
Definition 19 (T-time): If TA = (F 0 , TM ) is a TAFCM, TM
is a timed automaton recognizing the timed language, i.e.,
L = {w1 , w2 , w3 , . . . , wi , . . .}, wi is a timed word, and rc is
a cognitive run that is defined over wi , then wi is a T-time of the
system.
Starting from the T-time definition, a formal description of
cognitive era and cognitive configuration is given.
Definition 20 (Cognitive Era and Cognitive Configuration):
If rc is a cognitive run that is defined over the T-time wi =
(, ) L:
1 ,1 2 ,2 3 ,3
rc : s0 , 0  s1 , 1  s2 , 2  TM that defines the dynamic behavior, whereas Fig. 8 shows a
1 2 3
then the time interval between the instants i and i+1 is the
ith cognitive era of system and the FCM F i that depicts the
system during the same interval is defined as the ith cognitive
configuration.
Both the cognitive evolution and the cognitive run are poten-
tially based on the infinite concept in the system. In fact, the
cognitive evolution can exploit an infinite application of cogni-
tive operators in to compute the mappings between the state
si and the FCM F i , whereas the cognitive run uses a timed
word, which is defined as a infinite sequence of ordered pairs,
n = {(i) = (si , F i ) : i = 0 . . . n 1}
which contains the first n ordered pairs that are computed by
through Definition 17 is the nth-order cognitive evolution.
Definition 22 (nth-order cognitive run): Let rc be a cognitive
run that is defined over a cognitive evolution
1 ,1 2 ,2 3 ,3
rc : s0 , 0  s1 , 1  s2 , 2  .
1 2 3
Then, the nth-order cognitive run rcn is the sequence of first n
elements of rc :
1 ,1 2 ,2 n 1 n 1
rcn : s0 , 0  s1 , 1  . . . , sn 1 , n 1 
1 2 n 1
where the mapping between the automaton states si and the
FCM F i is computed by the nth-order cognitive evolution that
is related to .
At this point, a simple example of a TAFCM is given. In this
sample, a timed cognitive system that describes the behavior of
an ecosystem, which is formed by three initial elements preda-
tors (P2 ), preys (P1 ), and grass for preys (G), is given. Unlike
the standard FCM, our approach allows us to dynamically mod-
ify the cognitive concepts of the system. For instance, in our
case, the concept hunter (H) can be added in a precise time
during the system life cycle in order to modify the cognitive
concepts, G, P1 , and P2 in a novel and unpredicted way. Figs.
6 and 7 show, respectively, the initial cognitive configuration
F 0 of the proposed system and the modified timed automaton
finite cognitive evolution 8 of the proposed TAFCM. In de-
tail, 8 associates each state in TM with eight FCMs that are
obtained from F 0 by the sequential application of operators in
= {, , , , , , , }. It is important to note that each
state in S may correspond to one or more FCMs, because the
same state can occur in different times during a cognitive run to
map various cognitive eras.
However, as mentioned in the previous section, one of the
main objectives of proposed paper is to provide a cognitive sim-
ulation that is capable of answering questions as whatifwhen.
In order to compute this simulation over the given TAFCM, it is
1050 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011

Fig. 7. Cognitive timed automaton that describes the dynamic behavior of the
ecosystem sample.

necessary to consider 1) an integer number p that represents the

last cognitive era that is computed by our engine and 2) a timed
word w that represents the system T-time. Then, if p = 3 and
w = (, ) = (abcdab . . . , 0.2 0.4 0.9 1.2 1.5 2.2 . . .), we can
compute the third-order cognitive evolution 3 :
3 = {(s0 s0 , F 0 ), (s1 s2 , F 1 ), (s2 s3 , F 2 )}
where F 0 is the aforesaid initial configuration (see Fig. 6),
whereas F 1 and F 2 are shown in Fig. 8. Finally, an nth-order
cognitive run rc3 (with the clock period k = 0.1) that is based
on 3 can be defined to perform our simulation:
a, b,
rc3 : s0 , [0] s1 , [0.2] s2 , [0.4] (18)
[0.2] [0.4]

which defines three cognitive eras, respectively, starting at time

0, 0.2, and 0.4. In Section VI, the concept value that is computed
by an nth-order cognitive run will be shown and compared with
the values that are computed by a simple FCM in order to show
the high level of dynamism that is introduced by TAFCMs. It is
worth noting that though cognitive eras model the time natural
evolution and they only move forward in time, a TAFCM, i.e.,
TA = (TM , F 0 ), can achieve a cognitive configuration already
visited during a cognitive evolution that is related to TA. In par-
ticular, let TM be a timed automaton that contains a path P from
sk to sl (l > k), such that for each edge si1 , si , a, , , i  in
P there exists another edge sj 1 , sj , a, , , j  in P and the
effect of the operator j is opposite to the effect that is computed
by i (for instance, i add concept c and j remove the same
concept); then, the cognitive configurations that are related to
sk and sl are the same. A sample of this temporal behavior is
performed by the path s0 s1 s3 s3 s0 that is related
to the automaton in Fig. 7. The effects of this behavior are shown
Fig. 8. Eighth-order cognitive evolution of ecosystem sample. (a) Cognitive
in Fig. 8(a)(d). configuration F 1 that is related to the state s2 , which is obtained by the appli-
1) Formal Verification of Temporal and Cognitive Properties cation of the operator over the FCM F 0 . (b) Cognitive configuration F 2 that
in a TAFCM: An important side effect that is related to the use of is related to the state s3 , which is obtained by the application of the  operator
over the FCM F 1 . (c) Cognitive configuration F 3 that is related to the state
timed automata for the realization of dynamic cognitive systems s3 , which is obtained by the application of the  operator over the FCM F 2 .
is to verify the temporal behavior of a system by means of a well- (d) Cognitive configuration F 4 that is related to the state s0 , which is obtained
defined model checking algorithms and software tools available. by application of the  operator over the FCM F 3 . (e) Cognitive configuration
F 5 that is related to the state s1 , which is obtained by the application of the
Our studies exploit the UPPAAL toolkit [41] to design and vali- operator over the FCM F 4 . (f) Cognitive configuration F 6 that is related to
date the TAFCM (F 0 , TM ) that describes the temporal cognitive the state s2 , which is obtained by the application of the  operator over the
behavior of a given system. UPPAAL is an integrated tool envi- FCM F 5 . (g) Cognitive configuration F 7 that is related to the state s1 , which is
obtained by application of the operator over the FCM F 6 . (h) Cognitive con-
ronment for modeling, validation, and verification of dynamic figuration F 8 that is related to the state s0 , which is obtained by the application
systems modeled as networks of timed automata. In particu- of the  operator over the FCM F 7 .
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS 1051

lar, UPPAAL provides a verification capability [42] through the

properties of reachability, safety, and liveness.
Reachability is a particularly desirable feature answering to
the most relevant question about a timed-automata-based sys-
tem: Has a given state or a defined set of states been reached
during system simulation or computation? With regard to the
context of interest, reachability analysis allows the system de-
signer to proof that no cognitive deadlock occurs and each state
in TM can be reached during a cognitive computation, i.e., no
unreachable cognitive era is present in TM .
Safety properties are of the form: something catastrophic will
never happen. For instance, these properties can assure that a
cognitive concept value ck that is computed by the collection of
a FCM {F i : i 0} that is related to a cognitive evolution
during a cognitive run rc is always contained in a real interval
high
[clow
k , ck ].
Liveness properties are of the form: something will eventually
happen, e.g., once a T-time and a cognitive run rc are jointly
used to evolve the initial FCM F 0 in a TAFCM, eventually,
the complete sequence of cognitive eras that is defined by a
cognitive evolution will be crossed.
In particular, UPPAAL environment allows designers to ver-
ify the behavior of a given TAFCM by designing a timed au-
tomaton TM that models the temporal behavior of the system
and defining a collection of UPPAAL functions that simulate Fig. 9. Cognitive map F 0 .
the behavior of a collection of n cognitive configurations F 0 ,
F 1 , . . . , F n related to a given nth-order cognitive evolution.
exploitation of these verification methods will guarantee a good
Successively, a set of model checking queries can be applied
quality design of the modeled system in terms of temporal and
to validate the behavior of the whole system. Some samples of
cognitive behavior.
queries used to validate the automaton that is shown in Fig. 7,
together with the related cognitive configurations (see Fig. 8),
are as follows: VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the pro-
A[] T A.s0 imply x > 0.2
posed approach by the usage of a TAFCM to modeling a dy-
A[] T A.s2 imply (x 0.2 and x 1.9) namic decision-making system for the management of solid
waste that has lately become a significant problem due to in-
A[] T A.s1 imply (x 1.5 and x 1.7)
creased public concerns for the environment. Normally, under
A[] T A.s3 imply (G 0.0 and G 1.0) some opportune conditions, it is possible to find plans to opti-
mize economical and social factors that make the best use of
A[] T A.s4 imply (P1 0.0 and P1 1.0). (19)
government funds for solid waste management. The experiment
The symbol A[] acts as the universal quantification . The shows indeed that TAFCMs are effective to help us find such
first three queries are the so-called temporal queries, and they opportune conditions.
allow to verify that each time the automaton TM is in the In general, it is the municipalitys responsibility to manage
states s0 , s1 , and s2 , the value of the clock x is compli- solid waste including its collection, treatment, and safe dis-
ant with designers hypothesis. At the same way, the so-called posal. During the term of a municipal government, in its effort
cognitive queries, A[] T A.s3 imply (G 0.0 and G 1.0) to improve the solid waste management, it may take several
and A[] T A.s4 imply (P1 0.0 and P1 1.0) allow design- decisions in order to modify its plan. Such decisions are usu-
ers to check that the value of different cognitive concepts, such ally dependent on the time in which they are taken for which
as H and P , is always compliant with the FCM definition or, in a TAFCM represents a promising method. In this experiment,
other words, always comprised between 0 and 1. Another impor- a TAFCM compares different strategies with support decision
tant UPPAAL query is surely A[] not deadlock and i == n (i making, such that the plan can be made that may be success-
is an integer variable that identifies the current cognitive era) fully implemented within the 5-year term of the government.
that checks the reachability of the last cognitive configuration The FCM F 0 (see Fig. 9) models the collection of concepts that
of a given nth-order cognitive evolution. are related to waste collection, before strategies are applied.
More complex queries can be formulated by the usage of The timed cognitive transition table TM (see Fig. 10) models
relational operators (AND, OR, NOT) and other quantification municipality decisions that are capable of transforming F 0 at
operators, such as the existential quantification . The right right opportunities (for the sake of simplicity and convenience,
1052
Fig. 10. Cognitive timed automaton T M . For sake of space, T M is a simplified
version of a cognitive timed automaton with cognitive edges that are labeled
with a collection of cognitive operators. A corresponding automaton version
compliant with Definition 15 can be simply obtained by splitting each edge into
a collection of standard cognitive edges with no time constraints.
TM uses edges with several operators). In this experiment, the
temporal constraint for cognitive transitions is in the unit of
years. As expected, such a decision-support system is very large
even at the municipal scale, for the purpose of demonstration,
we show only a small portion of the collection of municipality
decisions, e.g., some political options. Our goal is to define the
most suitable sequence of cognitive transitions in TM ; in other
word, to find an opportune T-time (timed word) to change the
systems configuration through the most appropriate sequence
of cognitive eras.
During the first cognitive era, the system F 0 is composed of
the following concepts:
c1 number of people in the city
c2 migration into the city
c3 modernization
c4 garbage per area
c5 sanitation facilities
c6 number of diseases per 1000 residents
c7 bacteria per area
c8 economical funds. (20)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011
The aim of our test is to optimize the values of concepts c4 and
c8 by minimizing garbage per area and municipality spending.
According to Definition 19, let w1 and w2 be two timed words
that correspond to two different T-time of our system:
w1 = (1 , ) = (aceg, 1 2 3 4)
w2 = (2 , ) = (bdf g, 1 2 3 4). (21)
Both T-times evolve F 0 through 5 years by crossing four cog-
nitive eras whose cognitive configurations are defined, respec-
tively, by cognitive transitions that are labeled with symbols aceg
and bdfg. w1 and w2 generate a fourth-order cognitive evolution
with the corresponding fourth-order cognitive run, which rep-
resents the application of opportune decisions in a given time.
Figs. 11 and 12 show the four cognitive configurations that are
computed, respectively, by fourth-order cognitive runs that are
related to w1 and w2 .
Now, let us analyze the effects of application of w1 and w2 on
the initial map F 0 in order to highlight benefits/drawbacks that
are provided by corresponding decisions. During their cognitive
evolutions, both T-times add novel concepts to F 0 :
c9 technology
c10 educational plans
c11 aging. (22)
The concept c9 represents technological tools that aid waste
treatment, such as incineration. The concept c10 models a col-
lection of educational plans by the municipality to raise citizen
awareness. The concept c11 is the aging factor of technological
tools that are related to c9 . During the cognitive runs that are
related to w1 and w2 , the TAFCM (F 0 , TM ) evolves through
events, such as receiving funds from the central government
and improving technologies and educational plans. However,
the runs that are related to w1 and w2 produce different results
because the related decisions use different kinds of technolo-
gies. w1 considers high quality and expensive technologies that
are characterized by a slow aging and cheap maintenance costs,
whereas decisions in w2 build low quality and cheap technolo-
gies. Table II shows the complete municipalitys behavior with
respect to the T-times w1 and w2 . As highlighted by Figs. 13
and 14, decisions that are related to w1 produce a more effec-
tive behavior of the whole municipality decisions because they
decrease the value of concept that is related to garbage per area
and, at the same time, it allows municipality to save funds.
VII. CONCLUSION
FCMs theory is a powerful approach to modeling human
knowledge that is based on causal reasoning. Taking advan-
tages of fuzzy logic and cognitive maps theories, FCMs enable
system designers to model complex frameworks by defining de-
grees of causality between causal objects with linguistic gran-
ularity. However, FCMs lack temporal concept that is crucial
in many real-world applications, and moreover, they do not of-
fer formal methodologies to check the behavior of the system
being modeled, which severely limit the conventional FCMs in
applications.
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS 1053

Fig. 11. Cognitive configurations that are related to the fourth-order cognitive evolution of w 1 .
1054 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2011

Fig. 12. Cognitive configurations that are related to the fourth-order cognitive evolution of w 2 .
ACAMPORA AND LOIA: ON THE TEMPORAL GRANULARITY IN FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS 1055

TABLE II
TABULAR VIEW OF FOURTH-ORDER COGNITIVE EVOLUTIONS THAT ARE RELATED TO T-TIMES w 1 AND w 2

Fig. 13. Concept values (c4 , c8 , c7 ) evolution that is related to the fourth-order cognitive run of w 1 .

In this paper, we have presented a novel fuzzy inference en-
gine, i.e., the TAFCM, to support the modeling of dynamic sys-
tems through a cognitive approach. A TAFCM is a synergetic
approach to solving the drawbacks of the standard FCM. We pro-
posed a double-layered temporal granularity, based on which,
we introduced the concepts of cognitive configuration, cogni-
tive era, and cognitive runs. It is the TAFCMs ability to express
temporal uncertainty that has made it possible for us to use timed
automata, which play a crucial role in its implementation. As
shown by the experiment, a TAFCM is a promising framework
for dynamic, decision support systems. However, TAFCMs that
are introduced in this paper exploits expert knowledge to design
the collection of cognitive eras and configurations representing
the temporal behavior of the system under design. In the future,
the proposed approach may be embedded to some machine-
learning approaches, such as evolutionary computation, where
population-based search algorithms may automatically find suit-
able T-times or cognitives era and configurations to improve the
1056
Fig. 14. Concept values (c4 , c8 , c7 ) evolution that is related to the fourth-order cognitive run of w 2 .
system behavior. In particular, we will investigate how genetic
and memetic algorithms could be used to evolve T-time chro-
mosomes toward a suboptimal systems behavior [43], [44].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers
for their comments, which were very helpful in improving the
quality and presentation of the paper. They would also like to
thank Prof. Z.-Q. Liu for fruitful and precious discussions on
FCMs.
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1057
Giovanni Acampora (M07) received the Laurea
(cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees both in computer sci-
ence, from the University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy,
in 2003 and 2007, respectively.
Since 2007, he has been a Research Associate with
the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sci-
ence, University of Salerno. He is also a member of
the Multi-Agent Laboratory, University of Salerno,
and is scientifically coresponsible for the COnsorzio
di RIcerca Sistemi ad Agenti (CORISA) Research
Centre. From September 2003 to June 2007, he was
also involved with the Centro Regionale di Competenza - Information and Com-
munication Technology (CRDC-ICT) Domotic project, where he was engaged
in research on multiagent systems and artificial intelligence applied to ambient
intelligence environments. He designed the Fuzzy Markup Language, which is
an XML-based environment for modeling transparent fuzzy systems. His current
research interests include novel algorithms design approaches that are inspired
by natural systems such as swarm intelligence; evolutionary and memetic strate-
gies; investigating the designing of novel humancomputer interaction systems
based on integration among haptic hardware; virtual reality and augmented re-
ality technologies; formal methods from the language theory area, and the study
of temporal effects on the behavior of fuzzy systems modeled through fuzzy
controllers and fuzzy cognitive maps. He also serves as a reviewer for several
international journals and conferences.
Dr. Acampora is a member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society
Technical Committee on Standards. In this context, he also served as the Chair
of the Task Force on Taxonomy and Terminology and as the Vice Chair of
the Task Force on New Standard Proposals. Since 2010, he has beeen serving
as Secretary and Treasurer of the Italian Chapter of the IEEE Computational
Intelligence Society.
Vincenzo Loia (SM08) received the Bachelors de-
gree in computer science from the University of
Salerno, Fisciano, Italy, in 1984 and the Ph.D. de-
gree in computer science from the University of Paris
VI, Paris, France, in 1989.
Since 1989, he has been a Faculty member with
the University of Salerno, where he teaches Operating
Systems, Semantic Web, and Multi-Agents Systems.
He is currently a Full Professor of computer science
with the Department of Mathematics and Computer
Science. He is the author of more than 190 original
research papers in international journals, e-book chapters, and international
conference proceedings. His current research interests include merging soft
computing and agent technology to design technologically complex environ-
ments, with particular interest in web intelligence applications.
Dr. Loia is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Soft Computing and the Editor-in-Chief
of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing. He serves as an Editor for
14 other international journals. He has been the Chair of the Emergent Tech-
nologies Technical Committee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society,
where he is currently the Chair the of Task Force Intelligent Agents.