The Utility of Display Space in Keeping Track of Rapidly Changing Information

Abstract

The results of 4 experiments suggest that the information available in graphic displays can have considerable performance consequences and that the kind of display invariants provided can interact with variables such as task difficulty, working-memory load, and the organization of information that is to be remembered. In Experiment 1, participants benefited from the presence of invariant spatial correlates of values to be remembered and showed superior performance (fewer errors and faster responses) relative to participants using a spatially impoverished display, regardless of information organization. Experiment 2 showed that the presence of unique verbal labels for items to be remembered aids keeping track performance. Experiments 3 and 4 provided further evidence that participants kept track of changing information best in conditions with spatial display invariants. These data are relevant to practitioners faced with designing soft monitoring displays - that is, displays involving multiple attributes of a single object in some cases (e.g., the temperature and pressure in a boiler) and one attribute of many objects in others (e.g., the current flow through several valves feeding the same system). Actual or potential applications of this research include improving computer displays designed to support complex, memoryintensive monitoring performance

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