| The Use of Spatial Cognition in Graph Interpretation |
AUG 2007 |
7 pages |
| Authors:
Susan B. Trickett; J. G. Trafton; NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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 | We conducted an experiment to investigate whether spatial processing is used in graph comprehension tasks. Using an interference paradigm, we demonstrate that a graph task interfered more with performance on a spatial memory task than on a visual "non-spatial" memory task. Reaction times showed there was no speed-accuracy tradeoff. We conclude that it was the spatial nature of the graph task that caused the additional interference in the spatial memory ... |
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| "I Don't Know What's Going on There": The Use of Spatial Transformations to Deal With and Resolve Uncertainty in Complex Visualizations (Preprint) |
22 MAY 2007 |
30 pages |
| Authors:
Susan B. Trickett; J. G. Trafton; Lelyn Saner; Christian D. Schunn; GEORGE MASON UNIV FAIRFAX VA DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY
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| Imagine a meteorologist preparing a weather forecast. In addition to years of experience and a vast store of domain knowledge, the forecaster has access to satellite images, to computer generated weather models and programs to display them in a variety of ways, and to an assortment of special-purpose tools that provide additional task-relevant data. There is no shortage of data, yet despite this array of resources, the task remains very ... |
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| The Evolution of Spatial Representation During Complex Visual Data Analysis: Knowing When and How to be Exact |
30 SEP 2005 |
27 pages |
| Authors:
Christian D. Schunn; Lelyn D. Saner; J. G. Trafton; Susan B. Trickett; Susan K. Kirschenbaum; Michael Knepp; Melanie Shoup; PITTSBURGH UNIV PA
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| How do problem solvers represent visual-spatial information in complex problem solving tasks? This paper explores the predictions of embodied problem solving and a neurocomputational theory for what factors influence internal representation choices. Data are collected from experts and novices in three different, complex visual-spatial problem-solving domains (weather forecasting, submarine target motion analysis, and fMRI data analysis). Internal spatial representations are coded from spontaneous gestures made during cued-recall summaries of problem ... |
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| Connecting Internal and External Representations: Spatial Transformations of Scientific Visualizations |
2005 |
19 pages |
| Authors:
J. G. Trafton; Susan B. Trickett; Farilee E. Mintz; NAVAL RESEARCH LAB MONTEREY CA
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| Many scientific discoveries have depended on external diagrams or visualizations. Many scientists also report to use as internal mental representation or mental imagery to help them solve problems and reason. How do scientists connect these internal and external representations? We examine working scientists as they worked on external scientific visualizations. We coded the number and type of special transformations (mental operations that scientists used on internal or external representations or ... |
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| Use of Spatial Transformations in Graph Comprehension |
2004 |
2 pages |
| Authors:
Susan B. Trickett; J. G. Trafton; NAVY CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WASHINGTON DC
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| Current theories of graph comprehension are largely silent about the processes by which inferences are made from graphs, although it is apparent that people are able to make such inferences. In Trickett & Trafton (2004), we proposed that people use spatial reasoning, in the form of spatial transformations to answer inferential questions. This paper is an extension of our earlier study, in which we standardized the graphs presented, so that ... |
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| Spatial Transformations in Graph Comprehension |
2004 |
5 pages |
| Authors:
Susan B. Trickett; J. G. Trafton; NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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| Although it is apparent that people are able to make inferences from graphs, it is presently unclear how they do so, even from simple graphs. Current theories of graph comprehension are largely silent about the processes by which such inferences are made ( e.g., Freedman and Shah, 2002; Pinker, 1990). The authors propose that people use spatial reasoning, in the form of spatial transformations (Trafton, Trickett, and Mintz, in press), ... |
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| Extracting Explicit and Implict Information from Complex Visualizations |
2002 |
16 pages |
| Authors:
J. G. Trafton; Sandra Marshall; Farilee Mintz; Susan B. Trickett; NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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| How do experienced users extract information from a complex visualization? The authors examine this question by performing an experiment. They presented experienced weather forecasters with visualizations that did not show the needed information explicitly and examined their eye movements. They replicated Carpenter and Shah (1998) when the information was explicitly available on the visualization. However, when the information was not explicitly available, they found that forecasters used spatial reasoning in ... |
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| A New Model of Graph and Visualization Usage |
2001 |
7 pages |
| Authors:
J. G. Trafton; Susan B. Trickett; NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC
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| We propose that current models of graph comprehension do not adequately capture how people use graphs and complex visualizations. To investigate this hypothesis, we examined 3 sessions of scientists using an in vivo methodology. We found that in order to obtain information from their graphs, scientists not only read off information directly from their visualizations (as current theories predict), but they also used a great deal of mental imagery "which ... |
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