A psychological study on the use of relationship concept Some preliminary findings-Some preliminary findings

Abstract

Conceptual models are central to information systems analysis and design. One of the main constructs in information modelling is the concept of relationship which is popularized by the entity-relationship model. Despite the prominence of relationship concept in information modelling for the last two decades, little or no empirical research has been conducted to understand its usage by users. Several recent studies found that the relationship concept is problematic in information modelling, particularly the degree and connectivity (i.e., structural constraints) of the relationship. In our research, we investigate the importance of relationship concept for information modelling through a series of psychological experiments. This paper will present one of the studies that was conducted to investigate the use of relationship concept by expert users.