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A Fuzzy cognitive map is a cognitive map within which the relations between the elements or concepts represent weighted causal relations between the connected elements. For determining the strenthg of the relationship between elements fuzzy values are used. The Approach was first described by Bart Kosko.

The theory behind that computation is based on graph theory. Fuzzy cognitive maps are signed fuzzy digraphs. They may look at first blush like Hasse diagrams but they are not. Spreadsheets or tables are used to map FCMs into Matrixes for further computation.

A simple application of FCMs is described in a book of William R. Taylor, where the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is analyzed. And in Bart Kosko's book Fuzzy Thinking, several Hasse diagrams illustrate the use of FCMs. As an example, one FCM quoted from Rod Taber describes 11 factors of the American cocaine market and the relations between these factors. For computations, Taylor uses pentavalent logic (scalar values out of {-1,-0.5,0,+0.5,+1}). That particular map of Taber uses trivalent logic (scalar values out of {-1,0,+1}). Taber et al. also illustrate the dynamics of map fusion and give a theorem on the convergence of combination in a related article

While applications in social sciences  introduced FCMs to the public, they are used in a much wider range of applications, which all have to deal with creating and using models Chrysostomos D. Stylios, Voula C. Georgopoulos, Peter P. Groumpos: ''[http://med.ee.nd.edu/MED5/PAPERS/067/067.PDF The Use of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in Modeling