Eye Movements Indicate the Temporal Organisation of Information Processing in Graph Comprehension

Abstract

Hierarchical graphs (e.g. file system browsers and preference trees) represent objects (e.g. files and folders) as graph nodes and relations between them (e.g. sub-folder relations) as lines. We investigated the temporal organisation of two processes that are necessary for comprehending such graphs-search for the graph nodes and reasoning about their relation. We tracked eye movements to change graphs while participants interpreted them. In Experiment 1, we masked the graph at a time when search processes had finished but reasoning was hypothetically ongoing. We observed a dramatic deterioration in comprehension compared with unmasked graphs. In Experiment 2, we changed the relation between critical graph nodes after search for them had finished, unbeknownst to participants. Participants mostly based their response on the graph as presented after the change. These results suggest that comprehension processes are organised in a sequential manner, an observation that can potentially be applied to the interactive presentation of graphs.

Pupillary response to complex interdependent tasks: A cognitive-load theory perspective

“…A more focused pattern could be simply QC-IL-MC, and a less sure pattern would look like QC-IL-QC-IL-MC-QC-MC. Although it is difficult to identify when exactly a participant transitioned from one step to the next-or whether some parallel processing occurred at transitions or on a broader scale, despite studies that have shown the dominance of serial over parallel information processing (Körner, 2011;Körner, Höfler, Tröbinger, & Gilchrist, 2014)-the scheme above is expected to capture the major steps of the problem-solving process.…”

Can animation support the visualisation of dynamic graphs?

“…An interesting next step would be to employ eye tracking methodologies [34,38] to provide an interesting new perspective on questions relating to the utility of animation, small multiples and drawing stability. Such studies may help illustrate the root causes of the effects that we have measured with previous experiments.…”

Spatial legend compatibility within versus between graphs in multiple graph comprehension

“…Note that we did not find effects of compatibility on error rates, except for the marginally significant interaction in the initial performance analysis of Experiment 1. Although error rate is a well-established and sensitive measure used in the study of graph comprehension processes (e.g., Körner, Höfler, Tröbinger, & Gilchrist, 2014;Meyer, 2000), it is possible that our setting, which did not impose any time limit for responding, together with the instruction to respond accurately, contributed to the selective effects on RTs. However, one should keep in mind that many real-life situations (e.g., attending a research presentation) provide graphs for only a limited amount of time; thus, in these situations one would expect more comprehension errors for incompatible panels.…”