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Two tasks, varying in their demands to integrate multiple information sources, were used in a comparison of two graphical display formats. One display technique, an ‘object display’, utilized different dimensions of a single perceptual object to display task-relevant information. A contrasting graphical technique, a ‘bar graph’, used the same dimension of several separate objects to present identical information. In one experiment, 24 subjects used both displays to perform a simulated process control task in which integration of information from several time-varying sources was required. In a second experiment, 20 additional subjects used both displays in a non-integration task that required monitoring for particular values of six independent system outputs. Results of the integration experiment revealed that performance was superior when the object display was used. However, when the non-integration task was studied, the bar graphs provided more efficient performance. Thus, the requirement to integrate information from several sources may prove to be a predictor of when object displays may be most effectively used.
Carswell et al. (Sun,) studied this question.