Abstract
Diagrams are an effective means of conveying concrete, abstract or symbolic information about systems. Here, individuals or pairs of participants produced assembly instructions after assembling an object. When working individually, nearly all participants used a combination of text and diagrams. Those high in spatial ability produced the step-by-step action diagrams that in later studies were rated higher by all and improved performance of low ability participants. In a second experiment, pairs of participants assembled the object and produced instructions jointly. Pairs assembled the object faster and more accurately than individuals. Surprisingly, in the instructions produced, fewer than half the dyads used diagrams, and dyads produced fewer of the more effective diagrams. We speculate that the social verbal nature of the interactions of pairs encouraged verbal instructions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agrawala, M., Phan, D., Heiser, J., Haymaker, J., Klingner, J., Hanrahan, P., Tversky, B. (2003). Designing effective step-by-step assembly instructions. In: SIGGRAPH 2003 (2003)
Clark, H., Wilkes-Gibbs, D.: Referring as a collaborative process. Cognition 22, 1–39 (1986)
Clark, H.H.: Using language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996)
Garrod, S., Anderson, A.: Saying what you mean in dialogue: A study in conceptual and semantic co-ordination. Cognition 27, 181–218 (1987)
Goldschmidt, G.: The dialectics of sketching. Creativity Research Journal 4(2), 123–143 (1991)
Hegarty, M., Sims, V.K.: Individual differences in mental animation during mechanical reasoning. Memory & Cognition 22, 411–430 (1994)
Heiser, J., Tversky, B.: Descriptions and depictions in acquiring complex systems. In: The Proceedings of the 24th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2002)
Heiser, J., Tversky, B., Agrawala, M., Hanrahan, P.: Cognitive Design Principles for Visualizations: Revealing and Instantiating. In: the Proceedings of the 25th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2003)
Larkin, J., Simon, H.: Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive Science 11, 65–99 (1987)
Mayer, R.E., Gallini, J.K.: When is an illustration worth ten thousand words? Journal of Educational Psychology 82(4), 715–726 (1990)
Mijksenaar, P., Westendorp, P.: Open here: the art of instructional design. Thames and Hudson, London (1999)
Money, J., Alexander, D.: Turner’s syndrome: further demonstration of the presence of specific cognitional deficiencies. Journal of Medical Genetics 3, 47–48 (1966)
Novick, L., Morse, D.L.: Folding a fish, making a mushrooms: The role of diagrams in executing assembly procedures. Memory & Cognition 28(7), 1242–1256 (2000)
Pinker, S.: A theory of graph comprehension. In: Freedle, R. (ed.) Artificial intelligence and the future of testing, pp. 73–126. Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1990)
Richards, C.: Getting the picture: Diagram design and the information revolution. Information Design Journal 9(2) (2000)
Schon, D.A.: The Reflective Practitioner. Basic Books, New York (1983)
Schwartz, D.: The emergence of abstract representations in dyad problem solving. Journal of the Learning Sciences 4, 321–354 (1995)
Shepard, R., Cooper, L.: Mental Images and Their Transformations. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1982)
Suwa, M., Tversky, B.: What do architects and students perceive in their design sketches?: A protocol analysis. Design Studies 18, 385–403 (1997)
Tversky, B.: Cognitive origins of graphic conventions. In: Marchese, F.T. (ed.) Understanding images, pp. 29–53. Springer, New York (1995)
Tversky, B., Lee, P.U.: Pictorial and verbal tools for conveying routes. In: Freksa, C., Mark, D.M. (eds.) Spatial information theory, pp. 51–64. Springer, Berlin (1999)
Tversky, B., Zacks, J., Lee, P.U., Heiser, J.: Lines, blobs, crosses, and arrows: Diagrammatic communication with schematic figures. In: Anderson, M., Cheng, P., Haarslev, V. (eds.) Theory and application of diagrams, pp. 221–230. Springer, Berlin (2000)
Vandenburg, S.G., Kuse, A.R.: Mental rotations. A group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual Motor Skills 47, 599–604 (1978)
Wright, P., Lickorish, A., Hull, A., Ummelen, N.: Graphics in written directions: Appreciated by readers but not by writers. Applied Cognitive Psychology 9, 41–59 (1995)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Heiser, J., Tversky, B. (2005). Characterizing Diagrams Produced by Individuals and Dyads. In: Freksa, C., Knauff, M., Krieg-Brückner, B., Nebel, B., Barkowsky, T. (eds) Spatial Cognition IV. Reasoning, Action, Interaction. Spatial Cognition 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3343. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32255-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32255-9_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25048-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32255-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)