On the psychological processes of decision making in displays of electromagnetic data
M. O. Scase, Mohammed Shafiullah, Alistair Duffy · DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2011
Feature selective validation (FSV) is an international standard for comparing vi- sually complex 1D data. Initial veriflcation of FSV was performed by presenting a visual rating chart accompanying comparative data. Eye-scanning data was analysed from observers as they compared graphically presented data. However, little is understood about how observers inter- pret displays of multidimensional datasets. We have been applying psychological principles of judgment and decision making to investigate the processes involved in this task. The goal has been to establish the main factors that in∞uence observers when they make decisions when view- ing displays. The interpretation of complex scenes by human observers to recognise or detect particular features is limited by the structure and performance of the visual system. Therefore to devise displays for observers to detect features from n-dimensional data sets one needs to appre- ciate the functional limitations of our perceptual system. First, observers must be screened for any visual dysfunction. Factors which can limit or afiect processing include: attention; cognitive load; and difierences between expert and novice observers data visualisation, interpretation and mental models. The psychological validation of multi-dimensional FSV models demands a range of experimental methods to collect data from human observers. This includes a) users responses (reaction times and errors) to a range of n-dimensional data with systematic manipulations of observer attributes, perceptual features and cognitive elements, b) real-time observational data collection using a talk-aloud protocol and c) eye-flxation data collection of observers. Outcomes of the psychological studies could then be fed into the development of formal validation models.