Ontological semantic inference based on cognitive map

•We combined the cognitive map and the ontology to help decision making process.•This method can find the propagated inference in the complex cognitive map.•The complexities in large cognitive maps can be reduced by applying our approach.•We validated the proposed method by presenting a practical case study.

Cognitive map is a well-known approach to model the dynamics of qualitative systems, and has been studied and used in various fields, such as psychology, education, engineering, and management. Although the validity and usefulness of cognitive maps has been proven in many fields, and a considerable number of cognitive maps have been built during the last decade, cognitive map construction and use was just one-off event. In addition, the high degree of cognitive complexities in large cognitive maps makes it difficult for others to understand and exploit the pre-defined cognitive map in another similar domain problem.In this paper, an ontological semantic inference method, which combines the cognitive map and semantic influence, is proposed. This approach reuses a pre-defined cognitive map and provides an ontological semantic inference mechanism in decision making environments by reducing the degree of cognitive complexities in a large cognitive map.