Knowledge discovery process?

What is a Knowledge Discovery Process?

The process of knowledge discovery starts with identifying the knowledge to be discovered, which can be thought of as the question "what do we need to know?" This represents the gaps in understanding or information that an individual or group believes they lack. By recognizing what is unknown, i.e., the questions without answers, the process of knowledge discovery aims to fill in these gaps by finding answers through research, investigation, and other means.

Knowledge Discovery Process refers to the discovery and transformation of invisible knowledge into visible and tangible output.

The tangible output represents the knowledge discovered through the knowledge discovery process, encapsulating the new information that has been acquired. In contrast, the input represents the missing information or knowledge that needs to be discovered.

We do not address the question of the quality of the tangible output, assuming that it meets appropriate standards.

We consider the knowledge discovery part as a black box, and we don't know how it produces tangible output in response to input questions. This black box may contain a human or an AI tool, such as ChatGPT.

Knowledge Discovered

Let's delve into the world of knowledge acquisition and decision-making through a focused scenario: a person is tasked with typing the first letter of a word. This situation offers a window into how decisions are influenced and made based on available knowledge and external information sources. In this context, we define key variables to navigate the process:

X: Represents the aggregate of all information, insights, and understanding required to achieve a specific outcome. X encompasses a broad spectrum of possible outcomes, signifying the overarching objective of the decision-making process — identifying the correct letter to type.
Y: Represents the person's existing knowledge base, encompassing all prior information relevant to making the decision about X, as well as any other knowledge about anything else. Y influences the initial state of certainty or uncertainty regarding X, acting as the foundation upon which decisions are based. Initially, Y holds a certain level of information that may or may not be sufficient to resolve X.
Z: An external source of information, such as a book, from which the person can obtain answers to binary questions that directly pertain to X. Each interaction with Z is aimed at reducing the uncertainty about X. Z is a mechanism through which Y is enhanced, enabling a more informed decision-making process.

Given the multiple potential outcomes represented by X, there is a certain level of entropy H(X) associated with X, which signifies the initial uncertainty about X before considering any existing knowledge Y. H(X) is more about the potential variety and unpredictability in X itself, rather than the person's specific state of knowledge at any given moment. From a knowledge-centric perspective, H(X) is the person's perception of the "required knowledge" to successfully complete the task,

The mutual information I(X;Y) quantifies how much Y reduces the person's uncertainty about X due to the information obtained from Y It also captures the variability in the utility of Y. From a knowledge-centric perspective, the mutual information I(X;Y) is the person's perception of their individual capabilities or their "prior knowledge". It is the part of the person's existing knowledge base Y that they consider applicable for successfully achieving the outcome X. Prior knowledge is known to facilitate the learning of new knowledge from knowledge sources like Z. Estimates suggest that between 30% and 60% of the variance in learning outcomes can be explained by prior knowledge[1]. Additionally, prior knowledge of different domains can jointly support the recall of arguments[2]. In instances where no questions are needed, Y has effectively reduced all uncertainty about X by itself, suggesting high mutual information I(X;Y) for those instances. Conversely, when questions are needed, Y has not fully reduced uncertainty about X, indicating lower mutual information I(X;Y) for those specific instances. The overall I(X;Y) would reflect an average across all instances, considering both when Y is and isn’t sufficient by itself.

Conditional Entropy H(X|Y) quantifies the uncertainty that remains about X after considering the prior knowledge I(X;Y) before augmentation through Z. It represents the "knowledge to be discovered" - the difference between the prior knowledge a person possesses and the required knowledge needed to complete a task.

$H (X | Y) = H (X) - I (X : I)$

The knowledge to be discovered is what the person thinks they don't know, given what they think they do know. It is the information that the individual is missing about the task before engaging with it. That is the challenge they face. In practical terms, this means observing whether, in a specific instance, they need to ask further questions (indicating some remaining uncertainty about X) or if Y alone was enough to make the decision (no remaining uncertainty about X). Thus, H(X∣Y) can be understood or estimated based on the person's experience in each instance — how often and under what conditions they find Y sufficient or insufficient. The person will experience H(X∣Y) directly through the necessity of asking questions to reduce uncertainty. Over many instances, our observations about when and how often Y is sufficient could inform an estimate of H(X∣Y), and indirectly, the nature of H(X) itself by aggregating our experiences across different contexts or states of knowledge (Y).

Below is an animated example of calculating Knowledge Discovered when we search for a gold coin hidden in 1 of 64 boxes.

In all six cases, the required knowledge is 6 bits. This means that, on average, we need to ask six binary questions to find the gold coin. You can see that the knowledge to be discovered reflects the difference between the required knowledge and the prior knowledge.

The distinction between knowledge to be discovered and knowledge discovered is that the former is subjective and conditional, while the latter is objective and real.

Knowledge is a dynamic construct shaped by human inquiry, creativity, and interaction. It evolves through the systematic refinement of conjectures and the elimination of errors, evolving toward greater understanding. To measure knowledge, we interpret knowledge through the perspective of information theory. This means that we interpret knowledge through the perspective of information theory. In the table below, we have related human terms to concepts from information theory.

SUBJECTIVE		OBJECTIVE (ACTUAL)
Human perspective	Information Theory lens	Human perspective	Information Theory lens
Knowledge to be discovered	Missing information (Conditional)	Knowledge discovered	Actual missing Information gained
Required knowledge	Missing information (Unconditional)
Prior knowledge	Mutual information

The first column of the table lists various subjective elements from both human and information theory perspectives. The second column of the table contains knowledge discovered, which is the information that can be observed and verified through objective reality. We can measure knowledge discovered (or the information gained) by counting the number of questions asked.

Discovering knowledge

The process of knowledge discovery is a journey of exploration and investigation, as an individual seeks to fill in the gaps in their understanding and gain the knowledge necessary to complete a task.

From a knowledge-centric perspective, we define the person's perception of their individual capabilities as their "prior knowledge". It is what the person thinks they do know. Prior knowledge is known to facilitate the learning of new information. Estimates suggest that between 30% and 60% of the variance in learning outcomes can be explained by prior knowledge[1]. Additionally, prior knowledge of different domains can jointly support the recall of arguments[2].

We define to the person's perception of the complexity of a task as the knowledge required to successfully complete the task, We define "knowledge to be discovered" as the information that the individual is missing about the task before engaging with it. The knowledge to be discovered is what the person thinks they don't know, given what they think they do know.

However, it is not possible to accurately measure either the prior knowledge or the knowledge to be discovered in advance as demonstrated by the concept of ""it from bit"". Instead, the amount of knowledge discovered can be quantified after the task has been completed by counting the number of questions asked, providing insight into the subjective knowledge that needed to be discovered.

The distinction between knowledge to be discovered and knowledge discovered is that the former is subjective and conditional, while the latter is objective and real.

Knowledge to be discovered is subjective and conditional, while knowledge discovered is objective and real.

The knowledge discovered during a task refers to the information that is gained by an individual through their engagement in that task, and is the difference between their prior knowledge and the knowledge required to successfully complete the task. Prior knowledge represents the understanding and information that an individual already possesses before beginning the task, while the knowledge required to complete the task represents the information that still needs to be learned in order to achieve success. The knowledge discovered is the information that bridges this gap and allows the individual to successfully complete the task.

The knowledge discovered is the difference between an individual's prior knowledge and the knowledge required to successfully complete the task.

The outcome of the knowledge discovery process is the knowledge discovered, which is information that has been verified and confirmed through investigation or experience. This knowledge can be considered real as it has been tested and validated. However, the knowledge to be discovered, which represents the gap in understanding or the information that is believed to be missing, may not always be real. The distinction between knowledge to be discovered and knowledge discovered can be seen in games such as "20 questions" and ""Surprise 20 questions" where the knowledge to be discovered is an object or concept that is not certain until it is guessed or revealed.

The diagram below illustrates the internal workings of a knowledge discovery process.

The input to the process is the knowledge required to successfully complete the task at hand, which is represented as a cloud with a gold coin inside. The knowledge discovery process aims to uncover the gold coin, which represents the knowledge that is essential to complete the task.

When prior knowledge is applied and used to group the possible states and decide on the number of states in each class, we can say that an understanding of the knowledge to be discovered has been gained. This knowledge to be discovered is represented by missing information, measured in bits. The result is the remaining knowledge to be discovered, which still contains some missing information.

If the remaining missing information is greater than zero, the discovery process continues by applying prior knowledge and gathering new information from the world through various methods such as active perception, monitoring, testing, experimenting, exploring, and inquiry, as explained here.

If the remaining missing information is zero, the discovery process is considered complete, and the required knowledge has been discovered. The knowledge discovered is confirmed, and the process can be stopped.

If the task is completed successfully, it can be inferred that the knowledge discovered during the process is equal to the knowledge that was deemed necessary to complete the task. In other words, all the information and understanding required to complete the task has been obtained.

We have knowledge when our missing information is zero.

Dynamic Process of Knowledge Discovery

Initially, Y may or may not be sufficient to resolve X i.e. not knowing the letter to type, As the person encounters uncertainty about X they engage in a process of querying Z to obtain specific information that addresses this uncertainty. Each query to Z is formulated as a binary question, the answer to which directly reduces the uncertainty about X by one bit of information. The key aspect of this scenario is that as the person receives answers from Z, their knowledge base (Y) is incrementally augmented, enhancing their capability to make an informed decision about X.

Incremental Increase in I(X;Y): With each piece of information acquired from Z and integrated into Y, there is a corresponding increase in the mutual information I(X;Y). This reflects a reduction in the uncertainty about X due to the enhanced state of Y.
Reduction of H(X∣Y) H(X∣Y) quantifies the remaining uncertainty about X given the current state of knowledge Y. As Y is augmented with each answer from Z, the uncertainty about X decreases. Therefore, the process of augmenting Y effectively reduces H(X∣Y) because Y becomes increasingly informative about X.

This process highlights a dynamic view of knowledge discovery, where Y is not static but evolves through interaction with Z. The evolving state of Y and its impact on decision-making about X can be modeled as a sequence of updates, each contributing to a gradual increase in I(X;Y) and decrease in H(X∣Y). Eventually the uncertainty about X is reduced to zero.

Let's look at a numerical example of this knowledge discovery process. Say we observe the person and notice they asked 3 binary questions to determine the letter they need to type,

Initial State (Before Asking Questions):

Entropy (H(X)): We don't know the value of H(X), because it depends on the context of the decision to be made (i.e., the selection of the letter from a number of possibilities).
Conditional Entropy H(X∣Y) Initially we don't know what the value of H(X∣Y) is.
Mutual Information (I(X;Y)) Initially the mutual information between X and Y is unknown.

After Asking Questions (and successfully typing the letter):

Entropy (H(X)): We still don't know the value of H(X).
The mutual information I(X;Y) increases by 3 bits, because 3 binary questions were asked gaining 1 bit of information each. That reflects the total amount of information gained by Y that was necessary to eliminate all uncertainty about X. However, we still don't know the value of I(X;Y), we only know the delta.
The conditional entropy H(X∣Y) is 0 bits, indicating no remaining uncertainty about X given the information obtained from Y.

The initial value of H(X∣Y) can be inferred from the necessity to ask questions (and thus gain information) until H(X∣Y)=0. If gaining 3 bits of information was necessary to eliminate all uncertainty about X (i.e., knowing which letter to type), and after this information gain, H(X∣Y)=0 bits (indicating no remaining uncertainty about X given Y), then it is reasonable to conclude that the initial value of H(X∣Y) was 3 bits. We reiterate that the reduction in H(X∣Y) is directly related to the information gain measured by I(X;Y).

The process we've described suggests that the total amount of information needed and gained to resolve the uncertainty was equal to the initial conditional entropy. Counting the number of questions asked allows us to make the concept of conditional entropy H(X∣Y) concrete and measurable.

Knowledge Discovered calculation for the longest English word

Let's explain how to measure conditional entropy H(X∣Y) for the whole word “Honorificabilitudinitatibus” from the exercise presented here. At the end of the exercise we have the word “Honorificabilitudinitatibus” typed and along with it a sequence of zeros and ones:

0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

In this sequence:

A "1" indicates an interval where the person knew what letter to type next, implying no additional information from the external source (Z) was needed at that moment. This suggests that their existing knowledge (Y) at that point was sufficient to make a decision about X (the letter to type).
A "0" indicates an interval where the person did not know what letter to type and had to query Z to obtain the necessary information. Each "0" represents a binary question asked to Z, which directly reduces the uncertainty about X by one bit of information, contributing to the conditional entropy H(X∣Y).

To measure the conditional entropy H(X∣Y) for typing the entire word:

Count the "0"s: Each "0" in the sequence represents a binary question asked, which corresponds to a bit of information needed to resolve uncertainty about the next letter to type. Counting the number of "0"s gives us the total number of binary questions asked throughout the process of typing the word.
Calculate H(X∣Y): The total number of "0"s (binary questions asked) quantifies the total conditional entropy H(X∣Y) for the word. This is because the conditional entropy represents the remaining uncertainty about X (each letter to be typed) given the existing knowledge (Y) before each decision is made. The process of asking questions and receiving answers effectively reduces this uncertainty.

The sequence contains 10 instances of "0". This implies that 10 binary questions were needed to resolve the uncertainty about what letters to type for the entire word. Therefore, the total conditional entropy H(X∣Y) for typing the word, given the existing knowledge (Y) and the process of querying Z, is 10 bits.

Calculating the Information per Symbol

Given that it took 10 bits of information to type 27 symbols (letters of the word), dividing the total bits of information by the number of symbols gives the average information per symbol for the typing process.

$H = \frac{H (X | Y)}{S} = \frac{10 bits}{27 symbols} \approx 0.37 bits / symbol$

This means, on average, each symbol in the word required about 0.37 bits of information to resolve the uncertainty about what letter to type next, given the existing knowledge and the process of querying an external source Z.

This calculation is based on the total conditional entropy H(X|Y) = 10 bits needed to type all 27 letters of the word, where the conditional entropy represents the total uncertainty resolved or information gained through the process of asking questions.

This metric provides insight into the efficiency of the knowledge acquisition process in this specific scenario. It indicates how much information, on average, was needed per letter to type the entire word, reflecting the average reduction in uncertainty or the average information gain per symbol, given the initial knowledge state Y and the assistance from querying Z.

Importantly, this calculation of information per symbol specifically reflects the conditional entropy H(X|Y) aspect and the process of augmenting existing knowledge Y to resolve uncertainty about the sequence X, not the mutual information between the sequence and the knowledge base per se.

How to cite:

Bakardzhiev D.V. (2022) Knowledge Discovery Process. https://docs.kedehub.io/kede/kede-knowledge-discovery-process.html

Works Cited

1. Dochy, F., Segers, M., and Buehl, M. M. (1999). The relation between assessment practices and outcomes of studies: the case of research on prior knowledge. Rev. Educ. Res. 69, 145–186. doi: 10.3102/00346543069002145

2. Schmidt HK, Rothgangel M, Grube D. Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas. Front Psychol. 2015 Sep 8;6:1292. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01292. PMID: 26441702; PMCID: PMC4562264.

Knowledge Discovery Process

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