Representation of abstract concepts: Differences across computing disciplines

Computer Science has evolved towards a discipline with different branches. Software is designed, produced and linked taking into account different viewpoints. This process typically involves multidisciplinary teams: Front End Developers, (OO)Programmers, Database Engineers. Software developers, who were educated in different computing disciplines, meet on the shop floor, where they link together software that was designed from different viewpoints. In this paper, the emphasis is on human characteristics, rather than on the formal properties of programming and modeling languages. Do the involved computing practitioners refer to the same concepts when they use the same words? A preliminary version of this study [1] addressed the assessment of differences in mental representations of abstract entities involved in programming and modeling. In this extended version we report the results of an experiment, designed to compare mental representations of abstract concepts with mental models described in the literature. We point at differences between groups of students, enrolled in different computing curricula, and explore possible explanations.