Examining Training Comprehension and External Cognition in Evaluations of Uncertainty Visualizations to Support Decision Making

Abstract

Recent advances in uncertainty visualization research have focused not only on design features to support decision making, but also on challenges of evaluating the effectiveness of uncertainty visualizations, such as the degree to which individuals’ baseline task comprehension may alter their performance on experimental tasks regardless of a visualization’s effectiveness. Building on recent work, we investigated the effect of training comprehension on performance across varying representations of uncertainty and varying degrees of visualization interactivity using a simulated course of action selection task. Additionally, we explored how extended cognition theory can be applied to visualization evaluations by incorporating interface features that afford externalization of knowledge within the task environment. Our findings suggest that regardless of how uncertainty is represented, training comprehension leads to superior transfer, reduced workload, more accurate metacognitive judgments, and higher cognitive efficiency. Our findings also suggest that external cognition during decision making leads to improved accuracy and cognitive efficiency. The present study contributes to research on the design and evaluation of uncertainty visualizations. In addition, this study extends previous work by demonstrating how extended cognition theory can inform the design of human-machine interfaces to support decision making.

Influence of dynamic content on visual attention during video advertisements

“…Lang and Bailey (2015) predicted and found that stable, motivationally relevant information at the periphery of the screen (not imminent) will be remembered better than when it is in the centre (imminent). The reason for this is that the human body has evolved over time to use its environment as a store of external memory (Hollan et al , 2000; Morton, 1967; Song et al , 2019), conserving energy for memorising potentially disappearing (fleeting) information that may be needed later. Imminent, stable and relevant information is likely to be imminent, stable and relevant in the future, so it does not need effortful attention and memorising.…”

“…However, for motivationally and task-relevant objects, imminence and stability can suppress attention because of the relatively enduring presence and relevance of these objects. As previously discussed, whenever viewers need to remember information about stable objects, they can just look at them (Hollan et al, 2000;Morton, 1967;Song et al, 2019). This is useful for human survival, as it frees attention to concentrate on fleeting objects and relevant objects located peripherally (Carretié et al, 2020;Lang and Bailey, 2015).…”

A Meta-Review of Learning Research in Immersive Virtual Reality

“…As one example of an additional area outside of MCQ or user surveys to measure outcomes, Cuevas et al (2004) described how "simulation vignettes" could be used to more accurately gauge the integration of knowledge in learners when compared to standard traditional assessments. This was recently tested and replicated in Song et al (2019) in studying simulations of decision making under uncertainty. But I-VR is capable of much more.…”