Turning pictures into numbers: extracting and generating information from complex visualizations

We present a study of complex visualization usage by expert meteorological forecasters. We performed a protocol analysis and examined the types of visualizations they examined. We present evidence for how experts are able to make use of complex visualizations. Our findings suggest that users of complex visualizations create qualitative mental models from which they can then generate quantitative information. In order to build their qualitative mental models, forecasters integrated information across multiple visualizations and extracted primarily qualitative information from visualizations in a goal-directed manner. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications of this study.

[1]  A. H. Murphy,et al.  Diagnostic verification of probability forecasts , 1992 .

[2]  Barbara Tversky,et al.  Cognitive Maps, Cognitive Collages, and Spatial Mental Models , 1993, COSIT.

[3]  Holly A. Taylorandbarbaratversky.  Spatial Mental Models Derived from Survey and Route Descriptions , 1992 .

[4]  Melinda T. Gervasio,et al.  Adapting to user preferences in crisis response , 1998, IUI '99.

[5]  Hasler Rudy Hayes,et al.  Three problems in teaching general skills , 1985 .

[6]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Conceptual limitations in comprehending line graphs. , 1995 .

[7]  P. Johnson-Laird,et al.  Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness , 1985 .

[8]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  CaMeRa: A Computational Model of Multiple Representations , 1997, Cogn. Sci..

[9]  W. Chase.  Spatial Representations of Taxi Drivers , 1983 .

[10]  B. Tversky,et al.  Spatial mental models derived from survey and route descriptions , 1992 .

[11]  Gerald L. Lohse,et al.  A Cognitive Model for Understanding Graphical Perception , 1993, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[12]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[13]  Tom Johnston,et al.  MacSHAPA and the enterprise of exploratory sequential data analysis (ESDA) , 1994, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[14]  Padraic Monaghan,et al.  Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference of the cognitive science society , 2001 .

[15]  Wai-Tat Fu,et al.  From Dipsy-Doodle to Streaming Motions: Changes in Representation in the Analysis of Visual Scientific Data , 2000 .

[16]  Steven Pinker,et al.  A theory of graph comprehension. , 1990 .

[17]  Andrew U. Frank,et al.  Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS , 1993, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[18]  K. Dunbar.  HOW SCIENTISTS REALLY REASON: SCIENTIFIC REASONING IN REAL-WORLD LABORATORIES , 1995 .

[19]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[20]  Roy O. Freedle,et al.  Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Testing , 1990 .

[21]  S. Kosslyn.  Image and mind , 1982 .

[22]  K. Dunbar.  How scientists think: On-line creativity and conceptual change in science. , 1997 .

[23]  Susan Bell Trickett,et al.  Blobs, Dipsy-Doodles and Other Funky Things: Framework Anomalies in Exploratory Data Analysis , 2000 .

[24]  Robert McGill,et al.  An Experiment in Graphical Perception , 1986, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[25]  J. Gregory Trafton,et al.  Memory for Goals in Means-ends Behavior , 1999 .

[26]  Robert R. Hoffman,et al.  Human Factors Psychology in the Support of Forecasting: The Design of Advanced Meteorological Workstations , 1991 .

[27]  J. Gregory Trafton,et al.  Memory for Goals: An Architectural Perspective , 2020, Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

[28]  John G. Casali,et al.  Selected graph design variables in four interpretation tasks: a microcomputer-based pilot study , 1988 .

[29]  Stephan Lewandowsky,et al.  The Perception of Statistical Graphs , 1989 .

[30]  Daniel Reisberg,et al.  Can mental images be ambiguous , 1985 .

[31]  Priti Shah,et al.  A Model of the Perceptual and Conceptual Processes in Graph Comprehension , 1998 .

[32]  B. Tversky.  Spatial mental models , 1991 .

[33]  B. Tversky.  Distortions in memory for maps , 1981, Cognitive Psychology.

[34]  E. Hutchins.  Cognition in the wild , 1995 .

[35]  John A. Sparrow,et al.  Graphical displays in information systems: some data properties influencing the effectiveness of alternative forms , 1989 .

[36]  David K. Simkin,et al.  An Information-Processing Analysis of Graph Perception , 1987 .

[37]  S. Kosslyn.  Image and Brain , 1994 .

[38]  L. Carter,et al.  An experiment on the design of tables and graphs used for presenting numerical data. , 1947, The Journal of applied psychology.

[39]  Robert J. Crutcher,et al.  The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. , 1993 .

[40]  S. Kosslyn.  Understanding charts and graphs , 1989 .

[41]  W. Cleveland,et al.  Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods , 1984 .

[42]  Stephen M. Kosslyn,et al.  Image and mind , 1982 .

[43]  R. C. Schwing,et al.  Societal Risk Assessment: How Safe is Safe Enough? , 1980 .