Modern computer systems routinely present information to the user as a combination of text and diagrammatic images, described as "graphical user interfaces". Practitioners and researchers in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) generally believe that the value of these diagrammatic representations is derived from metaphorical reasoning; they communicate abstract information by depicting a physical situation from which the abstractions can be inferred. This assumption has been prevalent in HCI research for over 20 years, but has seldom been tested experimentally. This thesis analyses the reasons why diagrams are believed to assist with abstract reasoning. It then presents the results of a series of experiments testing the contribution of metaphor to comprehension, problem solving, explanation and memory tasks carried out using a range of different diagrams. The results indicate that explicit metaphors provide surprisingly little benefit for cognitive tasks using diagrams as an external re...

Many researchers have evaluated different parts of UML ™ and have come up with suggestions for improvements to different parts of the language. This chapter looks at UML (version 1.4) as a whole, and contains an overview evaluation of UML and how it is described in the OMG ™ standard. The evaluation is done using a general framework for understanding quality of models and modeling languages in the information systems field. The evaluation is based on both practical experiences and more theoretical evaluations of UML. Based on the evaluation, we conclude that although being an improvement over it is predecessors, UML still has many limitations and deficiencies, both related to the expressiveness and comprehensibility of the language. Although work is well underway for the next version of UML (version 2.0), not all of the important problems seem to be addressed in the upcoming new version of the language.

The central claim of computationalism is generally taken to be that the brain is a computer, and that any computer implementing the appropriate program would ipso facto have a mind. In this paper I argue for the following propositions: (1) The central claim of computationalism is not about computers, a concept too imprecise for a scientific claim of this sort, but is about physical calculi (instantiated discrete formal systems). (2) In matters of formality, interpretability, and so forth, analog computation and digital computation are not essentially different, and so arguments such as Searle's hold or not as well for one as for the other. (3) Whether or not a biological system (such as the brain) is computational is a scientific matter of fact. (4) A substantive scientific question for cognitive science is whether cognition is better modeled by discrete representations or by continuous representations. (5) Cognitive science and AI need a theoretical construct that is the continuous an...

ABSTRACT. Drawings are an integral part of the dialogue a designer conducts with him or herself during design. They are a kind of external representation, a cognitive tool developed to facilitate information processing. Drawings differ from images in that they reflect conceptualizations, not perceptions, of reality. For a particular domain, sketches use a small set of segments or elements that map the critical elements of the domain. It is proposed that the choice of and representation of elements and the order in which they are drawn reflect the way that domain is schematized and conceptualized. Support for this claim is gathered from research on sketch maps, graphs, and geometric analogy solution. Design without drawing seems inconceivable. One view of the role of sketching in design is an iterative, cyclical, dialectic view where sketches serve to instantiate design ideas as well as to stimulate new ones. In each cycle, designers express their ideas externally, on paper, and then examine, interpret, and perhaps reinterpret them. This inspection of the drawings may inspire changes in design ideas, which are put down again on paper to be reexamined again, reconceived, redrawn, reexamined, and so on (for expansion of these ideas, see Goldschmidt, 1989, 1991, 1994;

Nearly all listeners consider the subjective aspects of music, such as its emotional tone, to have primary importance. But contemporary philosophers often downplay, ignore, or even deny such aspects of experience. Moreover, traditional philosophies of music try to decontextualize it. Using music as an example, this paper explores the structure of qualitative experience, demonstrating that it is multi-layer emergent, non-compositional, enacted, and situation dependent, among other non-Cartesian properties.

Abstract not found

Abstract. We describe in this paper an insurance company that has recently wanted to standardize on business process modeling language. To perform the evaluation, a generic framework for assessing the quality of models and modeling languages was specialized to the needs of the company. Three different modeling languages were evaluated according to the specialized criteria. The work illustrates the practical utility of the overall framework, where language quality features are looked upon as means to enable the creation of models of high quality. It also illustrates the need for specializing this kind of general framework based on the requirements of the specific organization. 1

: Development of documents in multiple media involves activities in three different fields, the technical, the discoursive and the procedural. The major development problems of artifact complexity, cognitive processes, design basis and working context are located where these fields overlap. Pending the emergence of a unified approach to design, any method must allow for development at the three levels of discourse structure, media disposition and composition, and presentation. Related work concerned with generalised discourse structures, structured documents, production methods for existing multiple media artifacts, and hypertext design offer some partial forms of assistance at different levels. Desirable characteristics of a multimedia design method will include three phases of production, a variety of possible actions with media elements, an underlying discoursive structure, and explicit comparates for review. Keywords: multimedia document, design method, discourse 1 Introduction The...

The uptake in the software industry of notations for designing systems visually has been accelerated with the standardization of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The formalization of diagrammatic notations is important for the development of essential tool support and to allow reasoning to take place at the diagrammatic level. Focusing on an extended version of Venn and Euler diagrams (which was developed to complement UML in the specification of software systems), this paper presents two levels of syntax for this system: type-syntax and token-syntax. Token-syntax is about particular diagrams instantiated on some physical medium, and type-syntax provides a formal definition with which a concrete representation of a diagram must comply. While these two levels of syntax are closely related to each other, the domains of type-syntax and token-syntax are ontologically and the other concrete. We discuss the roles of typesyntax and token-syntax in diagrammatic systems and show that it is important to consider both levels of syntax in diagrammatic reasoning systems and in developing software tools to support such systems.

Abstract not found