Graphic Representation of Judgmental Information

Abstract Graphic displays of information are an important link in the design of user/machine interfaces. However, research on general effectiveness of graphic displays as information organizing formats for judgment and decision making has produced mixed results; graphic formats appear to facilitate judgmental performance in some contexts, but not in others. The two studies reported here examine the relative efficacy of a set of basic graphic display formats, such as might be used to summarize data in an information system, in the context of a task calling for individuals to integrate a set of information cues into an overall judgment. A "lens model" is used as a decompositional framework for representing the relationship between the elements of the information displays and the psychological properties of the multicue judgment task. Combined results from the two studies suggest that judgmental performance is markedly enhanced or degraded by the degree to which the display format provides the user with an organizing structure that facilitates a matching between the relative importance of information and the psychological salience of the display's graphic features.