CONSCIOUS - COgnitive NeuroSCIence and psychOlogy in bUSiness process modeling

Project Description

Myriads of complex biological and cognitive processes are taking place in the brain of a human. Moreover, the human brain is inundated with information stemming from the perceived environment. Whether conscious or subconscious, these internal processes finally conclude the behavior of human decision making and define our further actions. Despite the importance of this behavior, our knowledge about human decision making as well as corresponding perception is still at the beginning.

In the domain of process modeling, the application of cognitive neuroscience and psychology entails auspicious prospects. Taking the comprehension of process models into account, we developed a conceptual framework that incorporates methods and theories from these two disciplines as basic pillars thereof. The objective of CONSCIOUS is to foster the comprehensibility of process models with a particular focus on the

  • improvement of statistical and empirical evaluations existing in this context,
  • identification of rules on how to foster process model comprehension,
  • categorization (e.g., level of complexity or construct-related similarities) of process models based on experimental data, and
  • provision of directives towards creating better readable process models.

To tackle this challenge, we conduct a series of experiment taking advantages of different concepts from cognitive neuroscience and psychology. These concepts include, inter alia, the use as well as measurement of

  • the eye movements and pupil dilation via eye tracking
  • the electrodermal activity (EDA), to get insights regarding the skin conductance, response, reflex
  • the cognitive load theory referring to the mental workload being used by the working memory





Project Team

Ulm University
Opens internal link in current windowMichael Zimoch
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowDr. Rüdiger Pryss
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowProf. Dr. Manfred Reichert
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Opens internal link in current windowDr. Thomas Probst
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
University of Regensburg
Opens external link in new windowDr. Winfried Schlee
University of Regensburg, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Duration

The CONSCIOUS project has been running since 2016.

Publications

| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 |

2021

Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Baß, Julia and Reichert, Manfred (2021) Measuring the Cognitive Complexity in the Comprehension of Modular Process Models. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 10.1109/TCDS.2020.3032730. (Accepted for Publication) file
Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Reichert, Manfred (2021) Applying Eye Movement Modeling Examples to Guide Novices’ Attention in the Comprehension of Process Models. Brain Sciences, 11(1), MDPI. file
Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Fink, Matthias and Reichert, Manfred (2021) Towards Measuring and Quantifying the Comprehensibility of Process Models - The Process Model Comprehension Framework. arXiv. file

2020

Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Reichert, Manfred (2020) Learning to Read by Learning to Write: Evaluation of a Serious Game to Foster Business Process Model Comprehension. JMIR Serious Games, 8(1), JMIR Serious Games, 10.2196/15374. file
Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Reichert, Manfred (2020) Towards the Applicability of Measuring the Electrodermal Activity in the Context of Process Model Comprehension: Feasibility Study. Sensors, 20(4561), MDPI, 10.3390/s20164561. file

2019

Tallon, Miles and Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Rakoczy, Katrin and Reichert, Manfred and Greenlee, Mark W. and Frick, Ulrich (2019) Comprehension of business process models: Insight into cognitive strategies via eye tracking. Expert Systems with Applications, Elsevier, Vol. 136, pp. 145-158. file
Winter, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Reichert, Manfred (2019) ProMoEE - A lightweight web editor supporting study research on process models. In: Demo Track of the 17th Int Conference on Service-Oriented Computing (ICSOC 2019), Toulouse, France, October 28 -31, 2019. file

2018

Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Layher, Georg and Neumann, Heiko and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfried and Reichert, Manfred (2018) Utilizing the Capabilities Offered by Eye-Tracking to Foster Novices' Comprehension of Business Porcess Models. In: International Conference on Cognitive Computing (ICCC'2018), Seattle, LNCS 10971, Springer, pp. 155-163. file
Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfried and Reichert, Manfred (2018) The Repercussions of Business Process Modeling Notations on Mental Load and Mental Effort. In: Int Workshop Series on Social and Human Aspects of Business Process Management, BPM 2018 Workshops, Sydney, Australia, September 2018, LNBIP 342, Springer, pp. 133-145. file

2017

Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfried and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Towards a Conceptual Framework Fostering Process Comprehension in Healthcare. In: 30th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2017), Thessaloniki, Greece, June 22 - 24, 2017, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 167-168. file
Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfred and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Cognitive Insights into Business Process Model Comprehension: Preliminary Results for Experienced and Inexperienced Individuals. In: 18th Int'l Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development, and Support (BPMDS 2017), Essen, Germany, 12-13 June 2017, LNBIP 287, Springer, pp. 137-152. file
Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Schobel, Johannes and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Eye Tracking Experiments on Process Model Comprehension: Lessons Learned. In: 18th Int'l Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development, and Support (BPMDS 2017), Essen, Germany, 12-13 June 2017, LNBIP 287, Springer, pp. 153-168. file
Zimoch, Michael and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfried and Layher, Georg and Neumann, Heiko and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Evaluating the Comprehensibility of Graphical Business Process Models – An Eye Tracking Study. In: 19th European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM'17), Wuppertal, Germany. file
Zimoch, Michael and Mohring, Tim and Pryss, Rüdiger and Probst, Thomas and Schlee, Winfried and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Using Insights from Cognitive Neuroscience to Investigate the Effects of Event-Driven Process Chains on Process Model Comprehension. In: 1st Workshop on Cognitive Business Process Management (CBPM’17), BPM 2017 workshops, Barcelona, Spain, 11 September 2017, LNBIP 308, Springer, pp. 446-459. file

2016

Zimoch, Michael and Kolb, Jens and Reichert, Manfred (2016) Considering Social Distance as an Influence Factor in the Process of Process Modeling. In: 17th Int'l Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development, and Support (BPMDS'16), Ljubljana, Slovenia, 13-14 June 2016, LNBIP 248, Springer, pp. 97-112. file

2014

Kolb, Jens and Zimoch, Michael and Weber, Barbara and Reichert, Manfred (2014) How Social Distance of Process Designers Affects the Process of Process Modeling: Insights From a Controlled Experiment. In: 29th Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2014), Enterprise Engineering Track, Gyeongju, South Korea, 24-28 March, 2014, ACM Press, pp. 1364-1370. file

Master & Bachelor Theses

| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2015 | 2012 |

2022

Güleroglu, Ayse (2022) Analyse von Mustern der Aufmerksamkeit beim Betrachten von Petri-Netzen. Bachelor thesis, Ulm University. file
Kretschmann, Kai (2022) Design and Implementation of a Framework for the Creation of BPMN 2.0 Process Models based on Textual Descriptions. Master thesis, Institute of Databases and Information Systems. file
Loth, Florian (2022) Enhancing ProMoEE and DyVProMo with Additional Features to Foster Empirical Studies in the Context of Process Models Comprehension. Master thesis, Ulm University. file
Möller, maximilian (2022) Design and Implementation of an Empirical Eye Tracking Study regarding the Validation of Existing Guidelines for the Proper Comprehension of Process Models. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2021

Bredemeyer, Cynthia Natascha (2021) Comparative cross-sectional study of intuitive understanding of two graphical process models using eye tracking and skin resistance measurement. Master thesis, Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry. file
Bühler, Jana (2021) The Empirical Analysis of the Comprehensibility of Process Models created by Process Mining. Master thesis, Ulm University. file
Huynh, Misam (2021) Process Modeling Kills Agility - Resolving Misunderstandings and Make BPM Agile. Master thesis, Ulm University. file
Schlüter, Miriam (2021) Applying (Hidden) Markov Models in Eye Movement Behavior Analysis. Bachelor thesis, Ulm University. file
Waldow, Daria (2021) Towards the Applicability of Measuring the Brain Activity in the Context of Process Model Comprehension. Bachelor thesis, Ulm University. file

2020

Spitzer, Carina (2020) Investigating the Effects of a Virtual Process Environment on the Comprehension of Business Process Models. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2015

Zimoch, Michael (2015) Influence of Psychological Distance on Process Modeling: A Gamification Approach. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2012

Zimoch, Michael (2012) Experiments on Influence of Construal Level During Process Modeling. Bachelor thesis, Ulm University. file