Thinking Graphically: Connecting Vision and Cognition during Graph Comprehension

Abstract

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. Task analytic theories of graph comprehension account for the perceptual and conceptual processes required to extract specific information from graphs (Carpenter & Shah, 1998 Kosslyn, 1989; Lohse, 1993; Pinker, 1990). Comparatively, the processes underlying information integration have received less attention. We propose a new framework for information integration that highlights visual integration and cognitive integration. During visual integration, pattern recognition processes are used to form visual clusters of information; these visual clusters are then used to reason about the graph during cognitive integration. In three experiments the processes required to extract specific information and to integrate information were examined by collecting verbal protocol and eye movement data. Results supported the task analytic theories for specific information extraction and the processes of visual and cognitive integration for integrative questions. Further, the integrative processes scaled up as graph complexity increased, highlighting the importance of these processes for integration in more complex graphs. Finally, based on this framework, design principles to improve both visual and cognitive integration are described. Ratwani, Trafton, & Boehm-Davis: Thinking Graphically 2 AbstractTask analytic theories of graph comprehension account for the perceptual and conceptual processes required to extract specific information from graphs (Carpenter & Shah, 1998;Kosslyn, 1989;Lohse, 1993;Pinker, 1990). Comparatively, the processes underlying information integration have received less attention. We propose a new framework for information integration that highlights visual integration and cognitive integration. During visual integration, pattern recognition processes are used to form visual clusters of information; these visual clusters are then used to reason about the graph during cognitive integration. In three experiments the processes required to extract specific information and to integrate information were examined by collecting verbal protocol and eye movement data. Results supported the task analytic theories for specific information extraction and the processes of visual and cognitive integration for inte...

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

“…Similarly, Carpenter and Shah (1998) identified different stages of graph comprehension by analysing gaze durations spent on different parts of statistical graphs while participants answered interpretive questions (see also Shah & Carpenter, 1995;Shah, Hegarty, & Mayer, 1999). More recently, Renshaw, Finlay, Tyfa, and Ward (2004) have used eye tracking to evaluate the benefits of different graphical representations of information (see also Purchase, Carrington, & Allder, 2002), and Ratwani, Trafton, and Boehm-Davis (2008) have investigated search, reasoning and integration processes during comprehension of colour-coded map-like graphs. Because eye tracking-combined with proper experimentation-provides a moment-by-moment record of a reader's deployment of attention, it is particularly suited to reveal the temporal structure of comprehension of hierarchical graphs.…”

Effectiveness and Efficiency of Different Shapes of Food Guides

“…Studies examining eye movement data for different kinds of graphs have demonstrated that the processing of more complex and difficult graphs is associated with more and longer viewing of the graph. 16,17 As all 3 graphs included identical information depicted in the same way, except for shape, it was expected that differences in the eye movement data would be caused by the ease of interpretation of the shape. A shape was therefore considered more efficient than the others when the viewers needed less time and fewer gazes to process the graph.…”

Eye movements reveal distinct search and reasoning processes in comprehension of complex graphs

“…Grant and Spivey (2003) have shown that guiding visual attention can improve diagram-based problem solving. More recently, Peebles and Cheng (2003), Renshaw, Finlay, Tyfa, and Ward (2004), Huang (2007) and Acarturk, Habel, Cagiltay, and Alacam (2008) have used eye tracking to evaluate the benefits of different graphical representations of information, and Ratwani, Trafton, and Boehm-Davis (2008) have investigated search, reasoning and integration processes during comprehension of so-called choropleth graphs (spatial colour-coded graphs). There are several possibilities of how readers extract and process graphical information.…”