Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Human Perception Of Exponentially Increasing Data Displayed On A Log Scale Evaluated Through Experimental Graphics Tasks, Emily Robinson

Department of Statistics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Work

Log scales are often used to display data over several orders of magnitude within one graph. We conducted a series of three graphical studies to evaluate the impact displaying data on the log scale has on human perception of exponentially increasing trends compared to displaying data on the linear scale. Each study was related to a different graphical task, each requiring a different level of interaction and cognitive use of the data being presented. The first experiment evaluated whether our ability to perceptually notice differences in exponentially increasing trends is impacted by the choice of scale. Participants were shown a …