A conceptual modeling environment should not be
merely usable but fun to use, so users want to use it rather
than feel compelled to do so because that’s
what they’ve been told.
conceptual modeling environment should not be
merely usable but fun to use, so users want to use it
rather than feel compelled to do so because that’s
what they’ve been told. The OPM modeling
approach has adapted this philosophy into the
OPCAT environment to cater to our cognitive abilities (dual processing), limitations (limited capacity), and needs (active processing). Dual-channel
processing is addressed through the model’s bimodal
representation. Since technically oriented people
usually prefer diagrams while others might favor
text, individuals with both preference types are able
to benefit from consulting one modality while
inspecting the other. Domain experts and executives
on the customer side should participate in eliciting
and analyzing their system requirements, but pro-grammer-oriented modeling approaches and environments bar such involvement.
Devoid of the cryptic syntax normally found in
programming languages, the OPM model is understandable to customer-side stakeholders, allowing
them to inspect the model, understand the system
they should expect, and verify that the model meets
their requirements. Switching between graphics and
text, OPM system modelers are less likely to make
costly design errors, while model readers are more
likely to comprehend the system and detect design
mistakes or omissions that might otherwise slip by.
OPM addresses our limited cognitive capacity by providing abstraction/refinement mechanisms that
enable complexity management. Active processing is
facilitated by animated simulation that helps detect
costly design errors. Further, OPL’s formality is a basis
for generating the designed application automatically.
This capability reduces the modeler’s manual translations of the modeled requirements, narrowing the gap
between requirements and implementation.
All professions and organizations today demand
lifelong learning, so designers of modeling environments must be able to account for the variety of
human preferences and learning styles. The holistic
OPM paradigm, with its intuitive implementation, is
an example of a forward-thinking approach that
could be adopted in future modeling and learning
environments. Indeed, work is under way for the
Object Management Group’s scheduled release of
SysML 2.0 in 2009 or 2010 to utilize OPM elements,
including the addition of textual representations to
SysML diagram types in order to achieve bimodal
representation for dual-channel processing. c
REFERENCES
1. Baddeley, A. Working memory. Science 255, 5044 (1992), 556–559.
2. Chandler, P. and Sweller, J. Cognitive load theory and the format of
instruction. Cognition and Instruction 8, 4 (1991), 293–332.
3. Clark, J. and Paivio, A. Dual coding theory and education. Educational
Psychology Review 3, 3 (Sept. 1991), 149–210.
4. Dori, D. Object-Process Methodology: A Holistic Systems Paradigm.
Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2002.
5. Dori, D., Reinhartz-Berger, I., and Sturm, A. Developing complex systems with object-process methodology using OPCAT. In Proceedings of
Conceptual Modeling—ER 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science
2813 (Chicago, Oct. 13– 16). Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2003, 570–572,
2003; software available at www.opcat.com.
6. Glenberg, A. and Langston, W. Comprehension of illustrated text: Pictures help to build mental models. Journal of Memory and Language 31,
2 (Apr. 1992), 129–151.
7. Hegarty, M. Mental animation: Inferring motion from static displays
of mechanical systems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory and Cognition 18, 15 (Sept. 1992), 1084–1102.
8. Mayer, R. The promise of multimedia learning: Using the same
instructional design methods across different media. Learning and
Instruction 13, 2 (Apr. 2003), 125–139.
9. Mayer, R. and Moreno, R. Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist 38, 1 (2003), 43–52.
10. Miller, G. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits
on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review 63
(1956), 81– 97.
11. Stenning, K. and Oberlander, J. A cognitive theory of graphical and
linguistic reasoning: Logic and implementation. Cognitive Science 19, 1
(Jan.–Mar. 1995), 97–140.
12. von Glaserfeld, E. The Construction of Knowledge: Contributions to Conceptual Semantics. Intersystems Publications, Seaside, CA, 1987.
DOV DORI ( dori@ie.technion.ac.il) is an associate professor in the
William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.