Comprehension of Preference Graphs

Comprehension of preference graphs* Summary, Zusammenfassung The authors investigated readers' comprehension and miscomprehension whilst interpreting preference graphs. The knowledge available to readers of preference graphs, i.e., graphs that represented preferences among a set of objects was manipulated. Participants had to answer interpretive questions that were presented together with respective graphs. We assumed that the answers given to those questions were based on misconceptions (pieces of wrong knowledge) if appropriate knowledge was not available. Indeed, a large amount of consistently wrong answers was observed and linked to specific misconceptions. We also found that a substantial number of participants maintained misconceptions despite having the appropriate knowledge available. This result supported the assumption that misconceptions are not only a result of a lack of knowledge but may be induced by properties of the graphs themselves. Key words: graph comprehension, misconceptions, graph properties Verstandnis von Praferenzgraphen Die Autoren untersuchten das (Fehl-) Verstandnis bei der Interpretation von Praferenzgraphen. Das erforderliche Wissen, das Leserinnen and Lesem von Praferenzgraphen zur Verfugung stand, wurde variiert. Im Experiment mussten Versuchspersonen Interpretationsfragen beantworten, die ihnen gemeinsam mit entsprechenden Graphen prasentiert warden. Falls erforderliches Interpretationswissen fehlte, erwarteten wir, dass die Antworten aufgrund von Fehlkonzepten (objektiv falschem Wissen) zustande kommen. Ein hoher Anted spezifisch falscher Antworten, der auf entsprechende Fehlkonzepte hinwies, wurde beobachtet. Eine groBere Anzahl Versuchspersonen wies Fehlkonzepte auf, obwohl ihnen erforderliches Wissen instruiert worden war. Daher sind Fehlkonzepte vermutlich nicht nur eine Konsequenz von fehlendem Interpretationswissen; sie konnen auch von Eigenschaften der Prdferenzgraphen herruhren. Schlusselworter: Interpretation von Graphen, Fehlkonzepte, Grapheneigenschaften Conceptual graphs depict relations among non-numerical entities or concepts. They are powerful tools that can help students to learn from text (see, e.g., Hegarty & Just, 1993). Educators have repeatedly pointed out how important it is that students learn how to produce and interpret those graphs (e.g., Barwise & Etchemendy, 1991). Psychological research has focused on the investigation of numerical, especially statistical graphs, and this has resulted in a lack of research on conceptual graphs (Butler, 1993). In this article we focus on the knowledge necessary to understand a special type of non-numerical graphs, that is preference graphs. These graphs visualise preferences among objects of choice, for example, beverages, vacation destinations etc. The data structure underlying those graphs is called an ordered set The same preference data can be drawn as different graphs, and Korner and Albert (2002) have recommended design criteria that help speeding up comprehension of those graphs. Their recommendations were founded in reaction-time experiments in which graph readers were equipped with sufficient knowledge to interpret the graphs correctly. In this article, we concentrate on what happens when readers lack (parts of) the necessary knowledge for extracting specific information from a graph. We assume that readers develop wrong conceptions about preference graphs that we call misconceptions. Misconceptions, also known as malrules (Sleeman, 1986) or mind bugs (VanLehn, 1990), are considered pieces of wrong knowledge. This kind of knowledge leads to consistently wrong solutions when participants work on misconception related problems. In our experiment, we asked more or less naive readers questions about preference graphs and tried to link their wrong responses to misconceptions that might have evolved due to a lack of appropriate knowledge on graphs. …