Visualization vs. Specification in Diagrammatic Notations: A Case Study with the UML

In the world of diagrammatic notations, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) should be of special interest for cognitive studies. On one hand, UML integrates a host of different diagrammatic languages in real engineering use, and thus studying it should be itself extremely interesting. On the other hand, UML is adopted as a standard in software industry, and has already become a standard de facto in object-oriented analysis and design. This …