TY - GEN
T1 - The effects of users' background diagram knowledge and task characteristics upon information display selection
AU - Grawemeyer, Beate
AU - Cox, Richard
PY - 2008/12/1
Y1 - 2008/12/1
N2 - This paper explores factors associated with effective external representation (ER) use. We describe an information-processing approach to the assessment of ER knowledge. We also present findings from a study that examined the effects of users' background knowledge of ERs upon performance and their preferences for particular information display forms across a range of database query types that differed in their representational specificity. A representationally specific task is one which can only be performed effectively with one type of representation (or a narrow range of representations). On highly representationally specific tasks, optimal ER selection is crucial. Both ER selection performance and reasoning performance are, in turn, predicted by an individual's prior knowledge of ERs. On representationally nonspecific tasks, participants performed well with any of several different ER types regardless of their level of prior ER knowledge. It is argued that ER effectiveness crucially depends upon a three-way interaction between user characteristics (e.g. prior knowledge), the cognitive properties of an ER, and task characteristics.
AB - This paper explores factors associated with effective external representation (ER) use. We describe an information-processing approach to the assessment of ER knowledge. We also present findings from a study that examined the effects of users' background knowledge of ERs upon performance and their preferences for particular information display forms across a range of database query types that differed in their representational specificity. A representationally specific task is one which can only be performed effectively with one type of representation (or a narrow range of representations). On highly representationally specific tasks, optimal ER selection is crucial. Both ER selection performance and reasoning performance are, in turn, predicted by an individual's prior knowledge of ERs. On representationally nonspecific tasks, participants performed well with any of several different ER types regardless of their level of prior ER knowledge. It is argued that ER effectiveness crucially depends upon a three-way interaction between user characteristics (e.g. prior knowledge), the cognitive properties of an ER, and task characteristics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=56749175478&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-87730-1_29
DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-87730-1_29
M3 - Conference proceeding
AN - SCOPUS:56749175478
SN - 3540877290
SN - 9783540877295
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 321
EP - 334
BT - Diagrammatic Representation and Inference - 5th International Conference, Diagrams 2008, Proceedings
PB - Springer Nature
T2 - 5th International Conference on Diagrammatic Representation and Inference, Diagrams 2008
Y2 - 19 September 2008 through 21 September 2008
ER -