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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Measuring the Behavioral Effects of Intraocular Scatter

Measuring the Behavioral Effects of Intraocular Scatter

Published on: February 18, 2021

The perception of scatterplots.

Michael E Doherty¹, Richard B Anderson, Andrea M Angott

¹Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, USA. mdoher2@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Perception & Psychophysics

|November 28, 2007

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study explored how people perceive correlation (r) from scatterplots. Results show that as the objective correlation (r) increases, the ability to discriminate between different correlation strengths also improves.

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Area of Science:

Data Visualization
Cognitive Psychology
Statistical Perception

Background:

Subjective perception of correlation from scatterplots can be influenced by various graphic properties.
Objective correlation (r) is a statistical measure of linear association between two variables.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how accurately individuals perceive correlation (r) from scatterplots.
To determine how graphic properties, excluding error variance, affect the subjective estimation of correlation.
To examine the relationship between objective correlation magnitude and perceptual discriminability.

Main Methods:

Four experiments were conducted using scatterplots with controlled graphic properties.
Participants ranked scatterplots by correlation magnitude (Experiment 1).
Participants performed signal detection tasks (yes/no judgments) for high (signal) vs. low (noise) correlations (Experiments 2 & 3).
Expert participants provided point estimates of correlation for single scatterplots (Experiment 4).

Main Results:

Perceptual discriminability of correlation increased with the objective magnitude of correlation (r).
Subjective estimates of correlation were negatively accelerated functions of the objective correlation (r).
Consistent findings across ranking, signal detection, and estimation tasks.

Conclusions:

The ability to visually perceive correlation from scatterplots is directly related to the strength of the objective correlation.
Perception of correlation is not a linear function of its objective magnitude.
Understanding these perceptual principles is crucial for effective data visualization and interpretation.