Conceptual models are used to help professionals understand complex information systems and solve problems during systems analysis and design. Because single model often do not represent all relevant information, typically multiple models are used in combination. To design effective combinations of models, we propose a systematic approach that uses color highlighting to foreground overlapping concepts between multiple models to help readers identify corresponding information between models. We conducted two empirical studies – an online experiment and an eye-tracking experiment – to evaluate the cognitive efficacy of this approach. Our findings suggest that color highlighting can somewhat improve participants’ domain understanding but not the efficiency of problem-solving. Findings from the eye-tracking study suggest that the use of color can have both beneficial and harmful effects, depending on the extent of overlap.

中文翻译：

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有效表示多个概念模型的本体重叠


概念模型用于帮助专业人员理解复杂的信息系统并解决系统分析和设计过程中的问题。由于单个模型通常不能表示所有相关信息，因此通常会组合使用多个模型。为了设计有效的模型组合，我们提出了一种系统的方法，该方法使用颜色突出显示来突出多个模型之间的重叠概念，以帮助读者识别模型之间的相应信息。我们进行了两项实证研究——一项在线实验和一项眼动追踪实验——以评估这种方法的认知效果。我们的研究结果表明，颜色突出显示可以在一定程度上提高参与者的领域理解，但不能提高解决问题的效率。眼动追踪研究的结果表明，颜色的使用既有有益也有有害的影响，这取决于重叠的程度。