Perceptual Processing and the Comprehension of Relational Information in Dynamic Diagrams

To date, research on the processing involved in comprehending and learning from animated diagrams has accorded a minor role only to perceptual operations in general and peripheral processing in particular. For those aspects where the role of perception is acknowledged, it is foveal rather than peripheral processing that is regarded as the main player. In this paper, we use the results from additional finer grained analysis of data collected in a recent empirical study to suggest that information from a viewer’s peripheral field can play a much more central role in animation processing than has previously been recognized. It appears that if the dynamic information comprising an animated diagram is presented in a suitable way, the resources available for visual perception can be partitioned so that responsibility is shared efficiently between foveal and peripheral processing. Implications with regard to elaboration of the Animation Processing Model and possible interventions for improving animation processing are discussed.