The Effects of Iconic Presentation on Individuals

Abstract

This thesis investigated whether individuals interpreted iconic graphs differently than traditional graphs. A literature review revealed a lack of current research concerning iconic graphs. Using guidelines previously created for high-integrity graphics, a timed, pretest-posttest experiment was developed to compare the impressions rendered by both traditional and iconic graphs to determine whether men and women interpret the two types of graphs in the same way. It was also used to determine whether traditional bar graphs or iconic graphs were preferred by the subjects. Ninety-nine subjects, all employees of the Royal Australian Air Force/ United States Air Force, or defense contractors, were involved in the experiment. Through the use of the Mann- Whitney U Test, it was determined that the method of presentation did not affect an individual's interpretation of the graph. Individuals did, however, prefer the traditional methods of presentation. It was also determined that gender did not have an affect on an individual's ability to interpret a graph.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA258785

Entities

People

  • Elizabeth C. Dunn
  • Ellen T. Barber

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computers
  • Data Science
  • Databases
  • Demography
  • Graphics
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Literature Surveys
  • Personnel Management
  • Statistical Tests
  • Students
  • Surveys
  • United States

Readers

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Regression Analysis.