| Description |
Given the widespread use of visualizations and their impact on health and safety, it is important to ensure that viewers interpret visualizations as accurately as possible. Ensemble visualizations are an increasingly popular method for visualizing data, as emerging research demonstrates that ensembles can effectively and intuitively communicate traditionally difficult statistical concepts. While a few studies have identified drawbacks to ensemble visualizations, no studies have identified the sources of reasoning biases that could occur with ensemble visualizations. Our previous work with hurricane forecast simulation ensemble visualizations identified a misunderstanding that could have resulted from the visual features of the display. The current study tested the hypothesis that visual-spatial biases, which are biases that are a direct result of the visualization technique, provide a cognitive mechanism to explain this misunderstanding. In three experiments, we tested the role of the visual elements of ensemble visualizations as well as knowledge about the visualization with novice participants (n = 303). The results suggest that previously documented reasoning errors with ensemble displays can be influenced both by changes to the visualization technique and by top-down knowledge-driven processing. |
