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The powerful influence of marks: Visual and knowledge-driven processing in hurricane track displays
Lace M K Padilla1, Sarah H Creem-Regehr2, William Thompson3
1Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Applied
|September 27, 2019
Summary
Hurricane forecast visualizations can mislead viewers. People perceive more damage where hurricane paths overlap, an effect reduced but not eliminated by changing visual details or adding instructions.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Information Visualization
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Effective communication of hazard risks is crucial.
- Visualizations, even with best practices, can lead to unintended viewer judgments.
- Understanding visualization's influence on decision-making is essential for designers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how uncertainty visualizations influence judgment.
- To examine unintended interpretations of ensemble hurricane forecast visualizations.
- To investigate the impact of visual features and instructions on decision-making.
Main Methods:
- Examined ensemble hurricane forecast visualizations.
- Compared damage estimations for locations overlapped by tracks versus those not.
- Manipulated the number of displayed hurricane paths and provided instructional information.
Main Results:
- Participants estimated more damage in areas overlapped by ensemble hurricane tracks.
- Reducing the number of displayed paths partially mitigated this effect.
- Providing instructions reduced the effect but did not eliminate it.
Conclusions:
- Visual features of ensemble hurricane forecasts significantly influence risk perception and decision-making.
- Uncertainty visualization requires careful design to avoid unintended interpretations.
- Further research is needed to develop more robust and less misleading visualization techniques.
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