HEURISTIC REASONING IN INTERPRETING BOX PLOTS: THE INFLUENCE OF ORIENTATION

• Authors: Stephanie Lem , Claudia Vandebeek , Patrick Onghena , Lieven Verschaffel , Wim Van Dooren
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We studied how graph design principles can predict specific reasoning mechanisms that occur when misinterpreting box plots, and, more specifically, the misinterpretation of the area as a representation of frequency or proportion of observations, instead of density. In previous studies this misinterpretation has been shown to be heuristic in nature and is elicited by the fact that box plots do not use space in a natural way. Graph design principles provide a theoretical framework for assuming that the orientation of a box plot could influence its interpretation. By analysing reaction times and accuracy rates for different item types, we explored whether there indeed is an influence of the orientation of a box plot on the way it is interpreted. Results indicate that the misinterpretation manifests itself in both orientations to the same extent, suggesting that the orientation of a box plot does not influence the reasoning mechanisms it provokes.

Keywords

EN

DUAL-PROCESS THEORY; GRAPH DESIGN; MISINTERPRETATION; HEURISTIC; BOX PLOTS

• Publisher: Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 56
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 127 – 136

Contributors

author

Stephanie Lem

• Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology, Dekenstraat 2, PO Box 3773, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

author

Claudia Vandebeek

author

Patrick Onghena

author

Lieven Verschaffel

author

Wim Van Dooren