THE USE OR MISUSE OF 3-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHS TO REPRESENT LOWER-DIMENSIONAL DATA

Some statisticians hold strong opinions regarding graphs with a 3-D lo ok. However, in experiments little attention has been paid to the effe cts of adding decorative depth. The performance of subjects on pie cha rts and bar charts with and without 3-D was evaluated in the present e xperiment. Subjects were asked to make relative magnitude estimates fo r different graphs. For pie charts, better performance was observed fo r 2-D than for 3-D charts. For the bar charts, a more differentiated p icture emerged: performance was dependent on the position, height and dimension of the bars. However, 3-D bar charts had the one disadvantag e that subjects needed more time to evaluate this type of graph.