"Smooth" or "Intermittent"? The Necessity of Halt in the Dynamic Visualization Due to the Features of Working Memory

With the improvement of computer capability and the development of visualization technology, dynamic visualization could be displayed smoothly. However, the span limitation of human’s working memory is a natural barrier to obtain the massive information in parallel. Here, we designed a simple psychological experiment to validate the necessity of the halt in the dynamic visualization. In this 2 × 2 between-subjects design test, 21 graduate students participated in the control group and experimental group respectively to compare the influence of the halt in the visualization under the conditions of the simple search task and the complex search task. The eye movement data of number of fixation points and total fixation duration of each single material were recorded to investigate the real-time cognitive load. The results showed that the performance improved significantly when the halt added in the complex search task, along with the real-time workload reduced. However, the performance and cognitive load have no significant change in the simple search task. It demonstrated the need for the appropriate halt in the complex data visualization.

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