ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to organize the major methods of knowledge representation. Representation schemes may need to include knowledge that is descriptive of objects and events and of interrelationships among them such as taxonomies, time lines and cause-effect sequences. The selection of the optimal representation method for a particular knowledge-based computer system application is often guided by consideration of general characteristics of knowledge representation formalisms. In knowledge representation systems characterized by non-modularity, the removal or addition of knowledge to the data base cannot be accomplished without introducing interaction effects on the rest of the system that may be very difficult to understand and control. Researchers in knowledge representation methods frequently differ on the balance to be accorded to declarative and procedural methods. Procedural representations of knowledge are intended to provide program controls that govern theorem proving sequences and processes contained in the systems logic-based data structures.
