Cognitive Architecture of Concepts: Conceptual Meta-Model

The triangular model of the cognitive architecture of concepts is a conceptual meta-model which shows a specific structure of common and scientific concepts and their semantic frames as components of conceptual models. This structure consists of the concept core, concept periphery, the semantic frame, and the relations among all the components of this structure. The core of a concept is composed of a symbol, a representative semantic image (as the core of a category or the prototype), and an intrinsic structure of a concept. The semantic frame consists of the meaning and the sense of the concept. The meaning is a set of all subordinated concepts and images. The sense is a set of all concepts which can be meaningfully connected with the given concept core in speech, thought or symbolic expression (except for subordinated concepts). The meaning and the sense are two disjunctive sets. The periphery of a concept is composed of the set of meaning and sense links to the concepts of the meaning and the sense. Three developmental levels of common and scientific concepts are presented in a frame of the model: empirical, exact, and formal. The empirical is provided as level of the common concepts. The exact and formal are provided as levels of the scientific concepts. The conclusions for science education are discussed.