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On the cognitive and behavioral effects of abstraction and fragmentation in modularized process models

Schreiber, Clemens ORCID iD icon 1; Abbad-Andaloussi, Amine; Weber, Barbara
1 Institut für Angewandte Informatik und Formale Beschreibungsverfahren (AIFB), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract:

Process model comprehension is essential for a variety of technical and managerial tasks. To facilitate comprehension, process models are often divided into subprocesses when they reach a certain size. However, depending on the task type this can either support or impede comprehension. To investigate this hypothesis, we conduct a comprehensive eye-tracking study, where we test two different types of comprehension tasks. These are local tasks focusing on a single subprocess, thereby benefiting from abstraction (i.e., irrelevant information is hidden), and global tasks comprising multiple subprocesses, thereby also benefiting from abstraction but impeded by fragmentation (i.e., relevant information is distributed across multiple fragments). Our subsequent analysis at task (coarse-grained) and phase (fine-grained) levels confirms the opposing effects of abstraction and fragmentation. For global tasks, we observe lower task comprehension, higher cognitive load, as well as more complex search and inference behaviors, when compared to local ones. An additional qualitative analysis of search and inference phases, based on process maps and time series, provides additional insights into the evolution of information processing and confirms the differences between the two task types. ... mehr


Verlagsausgabe §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000172998
Veröffentlicht am 22.08.2024
Originalveröffentlichung
DOI: 10.1016/j.is.2024.102424
Scopus
Zitationen: 1
Dimensions
Zitationen: 2
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Angewandte Informatik und Formale Beschreibungsverfahren (AIFB)
Publikationstyp Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Publikationsmonat/-jahr 11.2024
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator ISSN: 0306-4379, 1873-6076
KITopen-ID: 1000172998
Erschienen in Information Systems
Verlag Pergamon
Band 125
Seiten Art.-Nr.: 102424
Vorab online veröffentlicht am 06.07.2024
Schlagwörter Process model understandability, Modularization, Cognitive load theory, Eye-tracking
Nachgewiesen in Dimensions
Web of Science
Scopus
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