HUMAN-PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A METAPHOR GRAPHIC DISPLAY FOR RESPIRATORY DATA

Metaphor graphics are data displays designed to look like correspondin g variables in the real world, but in a non-literal sense of ''look li ke''. Evaluation of the impact of these graphics on human problem solv ing has twice been carried out, but with conflicting results. The pres ent experiment attempted to clarify the discrepancies between these fi ndings by using a complex task in which expert subjects interpreted re spiratory data. The metaphor graphic display led to interpretations tw ice as fast as a tabular (flowsheet) format, suggesting that conflict between earlier studies is due either to differences in training or to differences in goodness of metaphor. Findings to date indicate that m etaphor graphics work with complex as well as simple data sets, patter n detection as well as single number reporting tasks, and with expert as well as novice subjects.