Authors: Binny Samuel
Tags: 2011, abstraction, conceptual models, instantiation, schema comprehension
Conceptual schemas are a common external representation during systems development. The ability of an individual to acquire meaning about a domain as communicated by a conceptual schema is the extent to which an individual comprehends the conceptual schema [1]. Prior research has examined ways to improve conceptual schema comprehension of end users by ensuring ontological correctness [2], good decomposition [3], providing a common set of rules [4], and limiting cognitive load while utilizing multiple information channels [5, 6]. However, no research to date has examined the role of instantiation (moving from classlevel information to instance-level information) or abstraction (moving from instance-level to class-level information) on the process of conceptual schema comprehension. This research theorizes that both instantiation and abstraction occur during conceptual schema comprehension, and thus both class-level and instance-level information should be available to facilitate schema comprehension. A lab experiment is planned to test the hypotheses of this research.
Cite as:
Samuel B. (2011). “Reconceptualizing Conceptual Schema Comprehension: Understanding the Role of Instantiation and Abstraction,” in AIS SIGSAND, Bloomington, IN , United States, June 3-4, 2011.
