A semantic decision table is a special tool used to help people make decisions. Just like how we use a table to organize things or put our food on it, a semantic decision table organizes information so that we can make sense of it.
Here's how it works.
Imagine you have to decide whether to go outside or stay inside today. You can make a semantic decision table to help you decide. First, you write down all the things that might affect your decision. For example, "Is it raining?" "Do I have some work to do?" "Do my friends want to play outside with me?"
Next, you create a table with two columns: one for the different factors you came up with and one for your possible decisions. In this case, the possible decisions would be "go outside" or "stay inside."
Now you fill in the table by marking an "X" in the cell where the factor and decision intersect. For instance, if it's raining, you mark an "X" in the cell of "raining" and "stay inside." If your friends want to play outside, you mark an "X" for "friends want to play" and "go outside."
Once you've filled in all the cells, you look at each decision and see which one has more "X"s. In this case, if it's raining and you have work to do, you might decide to stay inside. But if it's a nice day and your friends want to play outside, you would go outside.
So, a semantic decision table helps us organize and compare pieces of information, so we can make a decision based on the factors that are most important to us.