Three-dimensional visualizations that make extensive use of state-of-the-art computer graphic techniques and a variety of representations of data in space are prevalent in diverse fields such as medicine, product design, manufacturing, weather predictions, simulations, and engineering. However, little is known about the cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of these visualizations. Now that 3D visualizations are also being used to aid in Web exploration, document search, and education, it is essential to target a wider range of users with very different cognitive skills. In this exploratory project, the PI will study spatial ability and its relationship to comprehension of current scientific and information visualizations, under the assumption that we can improve human performance by finding out what visualization features are best understood by a wide range of users and how these relate to different user spatial abilities, and then setting up explicit training programs to improve these spatial abilities. In particular, women tend to score lower in most spatial ability tests than men. The PI will run a series of experiments in an effort to better understand this phenomenon, and to determine how it may affect women's comprehension of various visualizations. The PI expects to improve on prior work in the field, where studies often were insufficiently controlled for multiple competing factors that may affect the tasks and lacked standardized tests of spatial abilities.
Broader Impacts: This research will offer a new perspective in the understanding of 3D visualization, and will provide useful information for designers about what kinds of tools demand more developed spatial skills from users. The results will indicate ways to design system interfaces whose data representation are independent of users' spatial abilities, and to improve existing visualization tools in current systems where the spatial abilities requirements are high, thereby promoting participation by groups with lower spatial skills, and reducing the learning curve for new users.
