Diagnosis of fault location using polygon displays

When polygon displays are used to represent multiple sources of information, sometimes they can be processed in parallel so that the significant information can be taken in 'at a glance'. Previous studies found that reaction times (RTs) remained constant as the number of vertices was increased (Greaney and MacRae 1993). However, these studies did not call for the explicit identification of critical vertices and used polygons that were relatively regular. The present study required abnormal vertices to be identified, and it was found that RTs increased as a function of the total number of vertices. In addition, RTs were longer when the variability of the displayed information was greater, that is, when the polygon was more irregular. It was concluded that the polygon display may have more potential as a global warning indicator than as a means of displaying individual parameter values, which must be assessed separately.