Diagrammatic
information:
techniques for
exploring its
mental repres-
entation and processing
Richard K. Lowe
Diagrams are increasingly
used to present complex and
abstract information. Their ulti­
mate success as tools for
communication depends large­
ly upon how effectively they
can be processed in the mind
of the viewer. The application
of established principles of
graphic design is a vital part of
developing effective diagrams,
but tends to focus upon exter­
nal aspects of representation
that apply at a general level
across a wide range of subject
domains. However, the inter­
nal (mental) representation of
a specific set of subject matter
is also important in influencing
what sense viewers make of a
diagram. The task of charac­
terising relationships between
the way a diagram is repre­
sented mentally and the effec­
tiveness with which that dia­
gram is processed poses
novel challenges to research­
ers. This paper decribes some
of these challenges and dis­
cusses methodologies that
have been developed to
explore the mental representa­
tion and processing of explan­
atory diagrams.
Information Design Journal 7:1 (1993), 3-17. DOI 10.1075/idj.7.1.011ow
ISSN 0142-5471 / E-ISSN 1569-979X © John Benjamins Publishing Company
INTRODUCTION
Pictorial displays are widely considered to be a
solution to communication problems rather
than a source of such problems. While this view
is probably quite reasonable for what could be
described as 'realistic' depictions of everyday
subject matter, it may not be the case with other
more abstract and specialised types of pictorial
presentation. This paper focuses upon the latter
class of pictures, in particular technical dia-
grams. It describes two qualitatively different
methodologies that have been developed to
investigate the way individuals with different
levels of expertise in a specific technical domain
mentally represent diagrams which are charac-
teristic of that domain. Weather map diagrams
were chosen as illustrative examples of a specific
genre or class of technical diagram, and the
research for which these methodologies were
developed involved comparisons of professional
meteorologists and non-meteorologists.
Whereas in the past the use of diagrams as a
means of presenting information tended to be
confined largely to certain skilled individuals Acknowledgements
working in a few quite specialised domains, T h e co-operation and support
of the director and staff of the
nowadays they are used to inform a wide range Western Australian Regional
of people about many different types of subject Office of the Bureau of Meteor-
matter. In particular, diagrams are now also ology is gratefully acknow-
ledged. T h e author also thanks
used as a way to present directions, instructions
William Chamberlain for his
or explanations to individuals who may have no fine work in assisting with the
particular training in how to deal with this form conversion to a HyperCard for-
mat of the manual versions of
of presentation (see Lowe, 1991a) and who are
the techniques described here.
professionally unskilled in the content area This paper is based upon a lec-
addressed by the diagram. This increased ture given at the 5th Informa-
reliance upon diagrams has occurred largely tion Design Conference,
London, April 1992.
independently of research into how people in
general interact with information presented in
Author's address
this format. Rather, it appears to be based upon
Faculty of Education
a belief that diagrams have an intrinsic capacity Curtin University
to make information accessible. While a good GPO Box U 1987
Perth 6 0 0 1 , Western Australia
diagram undoubtedly has enormous potential
in this regard, the realisation of this potential
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
ultimately depends on the capacity of the indi-
vidual to make effective use of that portrayal.
DIAGRAM EFFECTIVENESS
The effectiveness of a given diagram in fulfilling
a particular role depends both on the quality of
its design and on the characteristics of those
who will use the diagram as a source of informa-
tion. A wealth of experience and insight con-
cerning the design of diagrams has accumulated
amongst design practitioners over the years
(Macdonald-Ross, 1989). This has led both to
the development of more powerful techniques
of portrayal (such as the use of explanatory
views and transformations discussed by
Edgerton, 1980) and to the introduction of a
range of specialised diagrammatic conventions
and symbols that help to clarify the subject mat-
ter (Gilbert & Mulkay, 1984). Improvements in
the design of diagrams come not only from the
efforts of design practitioners themselves but
also from their professional interaction with
subject matter experts. For example, dialogue
between a subject matter expert and the design-
er during the development of a given diagram
ensures that it correctly shows all necessary
aspects of the content to be portrayed. During
this interaction, the way in which the content is
depicted can be refined to increase the clarity
and focus of the diagram.
However, although a subject matter expert is
an authority with respect to the correctness of
the content depicted, s/he is not automatically
able to tell what non-expert users will make of
the diagram. Neither is it reasonable to expect
the designer of a diagram to offer any more than
a very general opinion on how to help ensure
that the diagram will suit a non-specialist audi-
ence. Indeed, there is a limit in the extent to
which the quality of a diagram's design can of
Information design journal 7/1 (1993) 3-17
4
itself account for how effective it will be as a way
of communicating with naïve users. In addition,
there are many diagrams that are a firmly en-
trenched part of the graphic heritage of a partic-
ular knowledge domain. As a consequence,
those who wish to find out about that domain
are obliged to develop competence in dealing
with such diagrams without the opportunity of
obtaining alternative (and possibly more acces-
sible) forms of depiction. T o a greater or lesser
extent, the success of a diagram with a particu-
lar audience is only partly due to the diagram's
design because the capacities of the audience
and the approaches they use in trying to under-
stand the diagram also help to determine its
effectiveness. Thus, a research agenda for im-
proving the effectiveness of diagrams as a means
of communication needs to include a study of
the potential users, as well as the quality of the
diagrams. The former study is particularly
important within an instructional context in
which the users are, by definition, naive, and
diagrams are employed to present unfamiliar
content with the intention of making the
subject matter more accessible.
INVESTIGATING DIAGRAMS IN USE
Because the effectiveness of a diagram depends
on the way the audience uses it as well as on the
characteristics of the diagram itself, it is impor-
tant to investigate the way people interact with
diagrams. Some broad indications of how users
deal with a particular diagram can of course be
gained by conducting trials with an appropriate
group. Approaches such as collecting the opin-
ions of target users, informally observing the
behaviour of these users when working with a
diagram, studying users' errors, and comparing
responses to various versions of a diagram can
all be used to refine a particular diagram so that
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
it better suits its intended audience. These
macro-level investigations can all be used to
supplement the designer's professional judge-
ment in developing an effective diagram. U n -
fortunately, investigations at this broad level are
limited in the type of information they can
reveal. In particular, they provide little indica-
tion of what is going on inside the mind of the
viewer as the diagram is being interpreted. T h e
need is for finer-grained micro-level informa-
tion about the way diagrams are mentally repre-
sented and processed. This type of information
has the potential to help answer some questions
that may otherwise be difficult to address, par-
ticularly those which involve tacit knowledge or
knowledge that is intrinsically non-verbal in
nature.
DIAGRAMS AND REPRESENTATION
Diagrams are abstract graphic portrayals of the
subject matter they represent. The actual enti-
ties and relations that make up the subject mat-
ter in the real world are represented by various
visuo-spatial characteristics of the diagram.
However, the mapping of the subject matter
into the diagram is rarely completely straight-
forward and typically involves various types of
transformation. Apart from the obvious trans-
formation from three to two dimensions, there
is a range of other types of transformation that
have been developed, such as those that allow
non-spatial dimensions (time, semantic similar-
ity, etc.) to be represented in a spatial manner.
A comprehensive study of diagrams as a means
of presenting information needs to consider
these transformational conventions and what
they demand of the viewer. Because they are
external graphic representations, this aspect of
diagrams is readily accessible to systematic
study (given appropriate analytical frameworks)
Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17
5
by examining diagrams themselves, without
necessarily looking at the behaviour of diagram
users.
However, when we consider the way a dia-
gram is actually used by an individual seeking
information, another type of representation
needs to be considered. This is the internal
mental representation that the viewer builds
during interaction with the diagram. An indi-
vidual's mental representation of a particular
diagram is the basis for the way that diagram is
processed and ultimately understood (or not, as
the case may be). If an appropriate mental rep-
resentation is constructed from the diagram by
the viewer, then his or her interpretation of the
entities and relations portrayed in the diagram
will bear a workable correspondence to the situ-
ation that the diagram's author intended the
diagram to depict. It will thus provide a reliable
basis for thought or action with respect to that
situation. Unfortunately, even very fine dia-
grams can be incomprehensible to the uninitiat-
ed or can lead to misunderstandings which may
result in a person responding inappropriately.
As mentioned above, diagrams use a range of
quite characteristic transformations and con-
ventions that are not found in 'everyday' visual
representations. Unless a viewer is able to deal
with these appropriately, s/he will not develop
the type of meaning for the diagram that was
intended by its author.
MENTAL REPRESENTATION
Although little empirical work has been done to
investigate the way diagrams are represented in
people's minds, there has been considerable
investigation in recent years of the mental rep-
resentation of information presented in other
formats, particularly text. Much of this work
has involved comparing the different ways in
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
which people who are experts and novices in a
particular knowledge domain work with infor-
mation which is specific to that domain. An
important motivation for comparing these two
groups is the search for ways that may help
novices handle the information more effectively
(in other words, in a more expert-like fashion).
In many cases, expert-novice comparison
investigations have studied how these two dif-
ferent types of individual deal with problem
solving tasks. Chi, Glaser and Farr (1988) pro-
vide a useful overview of some of this research
and also summarise a number of characteristics
that have been found to distinguish the way
experts and novices deal with domain-specific
information. Of particular relevance to the pre-
sent article is the role that an individual's exist-
ing knowledge of a specialist domain plays in
the processing of a given set of information
from that domain. Not surprisingly, research
confirms that experts in a domain have a vast
knowledge base of information that is specific
to their particular field. However, the amount
of knowledge experts have is not the only way
they differ from novices. As well as these quan-
titative differences, experts' knowledge bases
have fundamental qualitative differences from
those possessed by novices and are organised
differently. It is not simply a case of novices'
knowledge bases being 'watered-down' versions
of those possessed by experts.
T h e knowledge bases in the heads of experts
emphasise types of entities (individual items of
information) which are different from those of
novices, and contain different types of relations
between those entities. Experts organise their
knowledge according to conceptual entities,
and their knowledge bases feature clusters of
information that have domain-specific mean-
ings, characteristics which novices lack. These
differences in knowledge base are associated
with differences in the way experts and novices
mentally represent information that is present-
information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17
6
ed to them. For example, expert physicists men-
tally represent the information presented in
physics word problems according to the under-
lying physics principles that are involved (Chi,
Feltovich & Glaser, 1981; Larkin, 1983). In con-
trast, novices represent the same information in
terms of its superficial characteristics, such as
the types of arrangements or objects that are
described in each problem. They do not see
through the 'cover story' provided by the prob-
lem description to the deeper structure that
involves fundamental physics concepts. As a
consequence, they are less successful in dealing
with the problems because they base their cog-
nitive processing upon an inappropriate mental
representation of the information.
Although most of the research comparing the
mental representations of experts and novices
has involved text, the few investigations that
have dealt with 'pictorial' material have pro-
duced findings which parallel the ideas men-
tioned above. These include studies of the
processing of schematic diagrams of basketball
plays (Allard & Burnett, 1985), electronic cir-
cuit diagrams (Egan & Schwartz, 1979), bird
identification pictures (Peeck & Zwarts, 1983),
figure skating patterns (Deakin & Allard, 1991)
and architectural drawings (Akin, 1986). In
none of these cases can the capacity of experts
be explained solely by their possession of vast
amounts of knowledge. It is the nature and
organisation of this knowledge that appears to
be central to their expertise and leads them to
mentally represent external information in a
distinctive fashion.
The research methods reported in this article
grew out of previous expert-novice research and
provide additional, more detailed approaches
for exploring the mental representation and
processing of diagrams. Their focus was in
some ways different from other approaches in
that they were designed to collect detailed non-
verbal data about the course of diagram pro-
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

cessing rather than being confined to products with (a) whether or not the viewers will find the
of that processing. Of particular interest was the significant parts of the information, and with
basis upon which the mental representation was (b) what the viewers mentally do with the infor-
constructed as individuals with different levels mation they find. The methods described in this
of expertise worked with a diagram. This raises article could be adapted to help information
two important questions. designers at various stages of the design process.
First, were there differences in how the For example, they could give the designer feed-
different types of individual explored the dia- back on how effective a diagram was in helping
gram's contents that may indicate the extent to the audience develop the desired understand-
which their search strategies were likely to ings. This feedback could be gathered as both
locate critical components of the information? product data (what happened overall as a result
This question is important because if novices in of a viewer's interaction with the diagram) and
a particular knowledge domain fail to explore a process data (how a viewer worked through the
diagram's contents in a productive fashion, they diagram and where interpretation may have
would probably be unable to develop an appro- gone astray).
priate mental representation of the information
it depicts. Since the mental representation of
presented information is the basis for the degree METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
and type of understanding that results, it is very
important that this initial information-gathering
Finding out about the mental representation
stage of processing is effective.
that a viewer constructs from a diagram (inside
Second, was the information depicted in the
the viewer's head) is naturally much more
diagram represented in the viewer's mind sim-
difficult than it is to study the diagram itself.
ply in terms of its visuo-spatial characteristics
This poses a significant research challenge.
(a superficial form of mental representation that
There are a number of important methodologi-
would be expected for novices) or in terms of its
cal issues that need to be considered in studying
domain-specific significance (a deeper, more
the mental representation of this type of materi-
principled mental representation that would be
al. Some of these issues will be considered,
expected for experts)? This question is impor-
before discussing the methods that have been
tant because if novices mentally represent the
developed in the present research.
diagram in a superficial fashion, it calls into
The first issue arises because diagrams are
question the privileged explanatory status that
often a combination of graphic material and
seems to be accorded to diagrammatic informa-
text (captions and labels). While acknowledging
tion. If novice viewers mentally represent the
the importance of this type of combination,
information they pick up from a diagram on a
studying a mixture of graphics and text would
basis that is qualitatively different from that
make it difficult to distinguish between the con-
used by experts, it seems unreasonable to
tribution of each form to the constructed men-
assume that they will develop the diagram's
tal representation. Considering the continuing
intended meaning.
debate over whether pictorial material is dealt
The implications of these two questions for
with in the mind as images or as propositions
information designers who deal with diagrams
(Paivio, 1986), it seems prudent to deal with
can be highlighted by paraphrasing them some-
graphics separately from text in the first
what more informally. They are concerned

Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17

7
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
instance. Therefore, in the research that forms
the basis for this paper, the focus was upon
graphic constituents only. The weather map
diagram genre was chosen for investigation
because it was a type of diagram that could
stand alone without any textual adjuncts.
However, a focus upon the graphic constituents
of diagrams raises the problem of how to tap the
mental representation of that type of informa-
tion in a manner which, as far as possible,
acknowledges its visual nature. Much of the
work that has been done to date in exploring
mental representation has involved the investi-
gation of textual materials and has relied on col-
lecting subjects' written or verbal output as
evidence for mental representation (e.g. Erics-
son & Simon, 1984). It would clearly be inap-
propriate, when investigating diagrams, to
collect data primarily in textual or verbal form
if we wish to avoid the distortions and modifica-
tions that inevitably occur when an attempt is
made to transform visual information into the
written or spoken word. So the methods
described below required subjects to produce
more appropriate forms of output, either by
physically manipulating given diagrammatic
material, or by producing their own drawings.
The second issue flows from the first in that
the methods described below incorporate draw-
ing tasks for the subjects. This raises the ques-
tion of the extent to which the results obtained
by these methods would reflect the processing
involved in a subject's cognitive operations with
her or his mental representation, rather than
simply reflecting the physical processing
involved in performing a drawing task (motor
skill, for example). Would the results obtained
be largely an artifact of the methodology or
would they indicate something significant about
mental representation? Studies by van Sommers
(1984) have shown that both physical and cog-
nitive factors can influence the outcomes of
drawing tasks. Due to the possibility of con-
Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17
8
founding through differences in drawing skill,
the second method to be described here, that
relied extensively on drawn output, also includ-
ed a control drawing task.
The final issue to be discussed here concerns
analysis and interpretation of the results. As the
study of mental representation deals with subtle
matters that are not available to direct inspec-
tion, considerable inference is required. There
is an absence of direct precedents for this type
of diagram investigation which makes it even
more important than usual to be explicit about
the assumptions made when the results are
analysed and interpreted. In general, it was
assumed that the way a subject's output is
organised during performance of a diagram pro-
cessing task reflects the way in which that indi-
vidual's mental representation of the task
content is structured. By this assumption, sub-
jects' performance during the task gives an indi-
cation of the cognitive operations which they
are performing to complete the task. In addi-
tion, these operations are in turn constrained by
the type of mental representation they use dur-
ing that processing.
THE METHODS
Two qualitatively different methods developed
for investigating the mental representation and
processing of diagrams will now be described in
general terms. The intention in using methods
that were qualitatively different was to deter-
mine features that characterise underlying men-
tal representation and processing rather than
methodological artifacts. Although the focus of
this paper is upon the basic procedure used in
each type of investigation, a brief account of
selected findings is also included. Further
details of the theoretical framework and find-
ings are discussed elsewhere (Lowe, 1989 and
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

Lowe, 1991b). The paper concludes with some meteorological markings already drawn upon it
comments about the challenges presented in and the subject glued this square onto its cor-
analysing and interpreting the data produced rect location on the blank outline map. How-
from these methods. ever, subjects had a strict limit on the amount of
information they were permitted to build up in
Restricted sampling method this way, so that they also eventually had to con-
This method required the subjects to sample tribute some information themselves. Before
segments of a weather map (that was hidden they began to nominate segments, subjects were
from their view) to help them work out the pat- told that: (a) they would be allowed to have only
tern of meteorological markings it contained. one third of the information which populated
When subjects began the task, they were faced the map (i.e. they were to choose 10 out of the
with a blank outline map of Australia. This 30 map segments as the ones they wished to be
map, which is shown in figure 1, was divided given); and that (b) once the quota of 10
into a grid of 30 individual approximately squares had been used up, the subject was to
square-shaped segments. complete the map by drawing in any markings
Subjects were told their ultimate task was to considered necessary to make the weather map
build up a complete weather map diagram on as complete as possible (so that it corresponded
the blank map to reproduce as closely as possi- closely to the whole map that was hidden from
ble the weather map which the experimenter the subject's view). This meant that the whole
had hidden from their view. The way the sub- task was divided into two distinct stages: a 'map
ject did this was by nominating segments one at search' stage, followed by a 'map completion'
a time that s/he wished to receive for the com- stage. Because subjects were allowed to see only
plete (marked) weather map. As each segment 10 of the segments in all, it clearly was impor-
Figure 1 tant for them to make their selection in a way
was nominated, the experimenter gave the sub-
Segmented that used this limited choice as effectively as
blank output ject a small square of paper which was a copy of
that single segment. The square had the missing possible. In essence, they had to carry out a
map.
search process that they thought would give
A1 A2 A3 A5 A6 them their best chance of completing the map
A4
properly. The main types of data used in the
analysis were (a) the order in which segments
B1 B2 B4 B5
were chosen, (b) the distribution of these seg-
B3 B6
ments across the map, and (c) the characteris-
tics of the completed map drawing. Analysis of
these data was used as a basis for making infer-
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
ences about the nature of the mental represen-
tation of subjects with different levels of
expertise in reading weather maps.
D1 D2 D3 D5 D6
D4 This paper-based methodology has recently
been transformed into a version that runs on the
Macintosh computer (in HyperCard). The
E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 transformation has made the process of collect-
ing data faster, far more independent of the
experimenter, and easy to modify or extend to

Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17

9
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
include new aspects such as a sequence of
weather maps. Instead of nominating segments
to the experimenter, the subject now simply
selects by clicking a grid square on the screen
image of the segmented weather map. This
causes the square to turn black, indicating that
it has been selected. Upon confirming the selec-
tion with a second click on the blackened
square, the hidden portion of the weather map
markings is revealed. The program records the
sequence and location of segment choices, and
prints a copy of the subject's partly completed
map for her or him to draw in the remaining
markings.
Copy-recall method
This method relied more heavily on the sub-
jects' drawing behaviour than did the previous
method. The experimental task required sub-
jects first to copy and later to recall a given
weather map. The copying part of the task was
designed to generate observations of subject
performance that could be used to infer the way
a mental representation of a specific weather
map was gradually developed. The recall task
was designed to fulfil two main purposes. First,
it simply served the function of indicating the
effectiveness of storage and retrieval of informa-
tion from the copied weather map. Second, it
was intended to provide further information
about the general nature of the mental repre-
sentation that subjects constructed as a result of
the copying task. Comparison of the way map
information is processed when the map is
copied with the way it is processed during recall
has the potential to reveal characteristics of
mental representation that are not apparent
when each process is examined in isolation. For
example, it would be of interest to determine
any similarities and differences between the
processing used in a task in which given weather
map information was being used to construct a
mental representation, and that in which mental
Information design journal 7/1 (1993) 3-17
10
results of that construction process were in turn
being used to develop a new external physical
representation of the map.
As suggested above, a possible confounding
influence (upon both copying and recall perfor-
mance as an indicator of mental representation)
is the level of drawing competence of the
different groups of subjects. Because profes-
sional meteorologists are daily engaged in draw-
ing up weather maps as part of their normal
working routine, it is likely that they will have
become skilled in the spatial judgements and
physical manipulations required to draw the
types of graphic elements found in weather
maps. In contrast, the non-meteorologists
would probably lack these skills and so be at a
disadvantage when it came to tasks such as
making accurate copies of these displays. Before
accepting data based upon drawn output as a
source of evidence for the mental representation
of weather maps, this possible source of con-
founding needs to be addressed. T o this end, a
control task was used in which subjects copied a
non-weather map display (a stylised lakeside
scene) that was specially developed to contain
the types of graphic elements found in weather
maps. Figures 2 and 3 respectively show the
weather map and lakeside scene used as the
experimental and control displays.
If differences in drawing skill were largely
responsible for any differences between the
accuracy of the meteorologists and non-meteo-
rologists, this would be reflected in a simple way
across the control and experimental tasks. As
well as providing for any differences in drawing
skill, the control drawing was also the basis for
an intervening activity performed between map
copying and recall. This activity involved the
subjects describing their copy of the control dis-
play so as to prevent them recalling map infor-
mation from short term memory.
In the original version of this method, sub-
jects were seated at a table and provided with an
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

Figure 2 A Figure 3
4 sheet that was blank except for a map outline of the time which was required for data tran-
Original (or a lake outline for the control task). In front scription in the previous version. In addition, it Original lake­
weather map side scene for
of the subject was a back-projection screen with will make it easy to include new types of mea-
for copy task. control task.
a slide projector behind it. The image to be sures such as the direction in which the graphic
copied was projected onto the screen only when elements are drawn.
the subject pressed a 'viewing button' which
opened an electonically controlled shutter on
the slide projector. The procedure used forced
ILLUSTRATIVE FINDINGS
subjects to interrupt their drawing in order to
view the image so that measures of 'viewing'
Although the main focus of this article is upon
and 'drawing' behaviour constituted two dis-
the methods themselves, some brief examples
tinct data sets. Subjects' drawing behaviour
will be used to illustrate the types of informa-
during the procedure was videotaped to obtain
tion they can generate. While these findings
data about relationships involving their viewing
arise from an experimental rather than a design
and drawing times. This procedure was limited
context, they give an indication of the potential
in the type of data that could be collected, and
these methods have to uncover otherwise hid-
transcription of the videotape was extremely
den aspects of diagram processing. The meth-
time consuming. A HyperCard version of this
ods are robust and could be readily adapted to a
technique is currently under development
variety of design investigations. More extensive
which makes use of a graphics tablet so that
descriptions of these investigations and their
drawing behaviour can be recorded directly into
findings are given elsewhere (Lowe, 1989,
data files. It will not only make the task far sim-
1991b).
pler to administer but will also eliminate much

Information design journal 7/1 (1993) 3-17

11
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

The first set of results summarises some of Figure 5 summarises trends in the order in
the data obtained from the restricted sampling which various regions of the weather map dia-
method. Figure 4 is a graph of the inspection gram were searched. It deals with those regions
frequencies for the various rows of the grid used that were selected by 25 per cent or more of the
to partition the diagram. It provides a general subjects only, and is divided arbitrarily into
level of information about where the different 'early,' 'mid', or 'late' stages of the search
types of subjects decided to concentrate their sequence. Comparison of the exploration pat-
attention when exploring the unseen weather terns produced for the different types of subject
map diagram. One suggestion that arises from across these three stages suggests that they may
this graph is that the meteorologists and non- have different priorities in their information-
meteorologists have different ideas about which gathering activities.
regions of this type of diagram are potentially T h e second sample of results comes from the
most informative. copy-recall method. Figure 6 summarises infor-
mation about clustering of meteorological
markings on the weather map diagram that
arose from subjects' viewing patterns as they
performed the copying task.
The shaded and unshaded 'halves' of the dia-
grams show differences in the broad groupings
resulting from the application of a statistical
cluster analysis technique to the meteorologist
and non-meteorologist data. Verbal data
obtained using 'think-aloud' procedures (that
were a further aspect of the investigation using
the restricted sampling method) suggest that
these differences may reflect fundamental quali-
tative differences in the way the two types of
subjects mentally represent weather map dia-
grams. It seems that the non-meteorologists'
Figure 4 ↑ east-west subdivision of the map is more consis-
Total square tent with the visuo-spatial characteristics of the
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6
inspection fre­ markings or with some other domain-general
quency per
row. The black
influence, rather than with domain-specific
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 meteorological influences. In contrast, the
columns repre­
sent results for meteorologists' north-south subdivision sug-
the meteorolo­ gests two distinct broad-scale meteorological
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 rC6
gist group; the- influences that apply at lower (northern) and
white columns
higher (southern) latitudes respectively.
show results
D1 D2 D3 D5 D6
for the non- D4
meteorologist
group. (Right, a
reminder of the E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6
5 rows, A to E)

Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-11

12
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

Figure 5 Non-meteorologists Meteorologists

Square choices in
early, mid, and late
phases of selec­
tion sequence with
choice frequency of
25% or more. Light
shading indicates
segments already
Early
selected.

Mid

Late

Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17

13
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing

Figure 6 Non-meteorologists Meteorologists

Broad group­
ings of meteo­
rological
elements
obtained from
cluster analy­
sis of subjects'
viewing pat­
terns for (left)
non-meteorolo­
gists, and
(right) meteo­
rologists.

Figure 7 Non-meteorologists Meteorologists

Average order
in which mark­
ings were
copied by (left)
non-meteorolo­
gists, and
(right) meteo­
rologists.
Darker shading
indicates earli­
er production.

Figure 7 gives a visual summary of the aver-
age order in which the 34 markings that made
up the weather map diagram were copied by the
subjects. Here, the level of grey used to draw
markings indicates their relative positions in the
drawing sequence (the darker the marking, the
earlier it was drawn). For the non-meteorolo-
gists, there is a simple and regular progression
for the marking sequence which starts at the top
left hand corner and sweeps around the map in
a clockwise direction. This progression appears
to be correlated with the domain-general visuo-
spatial characteristics of the set of markings
(e.g. the markings' shapes and positions). In
contrast, the meteorologists' pattern is more
complex. It begins with a first sweep that starts
at the bottom right and identifies the position of
major meteorological features using a few mark-
ings which act as landmarks (shown as the dark-
est elements in the pattern). In a second stage
this 'skeleton' of markings is then fleshed out in
a different sweep around the map. This pro-
gression is consistent with a domain-specific
characterisation of the graphic elements that
subordinates visuo-spatial properties of the
markings to their meteorological significance.

Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17

14
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
DISCUSSION
The results obtained by using the manual ver-
sions of these two methods were complemen-
tary. T h e findings suggest that there are clear
qualititative differences between the way mete-
orologists and non-meteorologists mentally rep-
resent weather map diagrams, and that these
differences cannot be dismissed as simply
methodological artifacts. One consequence of
using these methods and a number of others
which have been developed is that subjects'
drawn output appears to give useful indications
of mental representation and processing of dia-
grammatic material, provided it is treated with
appropriate caution. This involves the use of
safeguards in which alternative techniques, that
address the same research questions but do not
require subjects to produce drawn output, are
employed in addition to drawing tasks (these
non-drawing tasks use pre-drawn material and
involve activities such as sorting, matching, and
the assembly of diagrams).
One of the most challenging (and time-con-
suming) aspects of this research is analysing and
interpreting the drawn output that subjects pro-
duce. As mentioned above, in the original
paper-based version of the restricted sampling
method, detailed 'think-aloud' verbal protocols
were collected as subjects performed the task.
Examination of this material following estab-
lished procedures for protocol analysis (Erics-
son & Simon, 1984) provided useful guidelines
for interpreting subjects' sampling behaviour
and their subsequent completion of the weather
map's markings. These guidelines can also be
used with the HyperCard version of the task.
However, there are no well-established
approaches for analysing subjects' drawn dia-
gram output, especially from procedures such
as the copy-recall method. This raises both the-
oretical issues and practical problems.
T h e theoretical issues concern comparision of
Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3 - 1 7
15
the marks drawn by the subjects during copying
or recall with the marks that constituted the
original diagram. With realistic drawings of
everyday subject matter, it is relatively simple to
define what constitutes an 'object' or a discrete
part of an object. However, for abstract dia-
grams which portray content that may be quite
unfamiliar to some of the potential users (as is
often the case in an instructional setting), such
definitions are far more difficult. There is a
need for the researcher to distinguish between
what constitutes a graphic entity and a concep-
tual entity for a particular type of user. Evidence
- from investigations using the methods
described above - of the way meteorologists and
non-meteorologists handle weather maps sug-
gests that this distinction is fundamental to the
way these two groups mentally represent this
type of diagram. Analysis procedures need to be
sensitive both to these differences in entity type
and to the types of relationships that exist
between the objects so identified. Obvious
forms of relations between objects in a diagram
are those that are responsible for their particular
spatial arrangement; but other types of less
apparent relations (such as semantic associa-
tions) are also important. For example, in some
cases, a physical closeness or similarity of a
number of entities indicates that they are
semantically related. However, this is by no
means always the case because the referents of
the diagrammatic objects are often related in
ways that do not express themselves as physical
manifestations. Hence, other methods that tap
non-visual semantic aspects of the mental rep-
resentation of a diagram are needed to supple-
ment the analysis of the visual aspects of
subjects' output.
Once the entities and relations of interest
have been identified in a way that takes account
of the theoretical concerns described above,
practical ways must be found to perform the
analysis of visual material produced by an inves-
 Richard K. Lowe ■ Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
tigation. This involves characterising the enti-
ties and relations consitituting the output by
means of a set of suitable measures. The work
carried out so far in this area indicates that this
characterisation needs to be carried out at a
number of different levels, ranging from global
to local. At the global level (in a weather map
context, how well the overall synoptic pattern
has been drawn), it has been found that using
expert judges to rate diagrams on a number of
criteria is most effective. However, analysis at a
local level can be carried out more mechanical-
ly, based upon characteristics such as position,
shape, orientation, dimensions, proportions,
area, and symmetry. Analytical techniques are
currently being developed by adapting comput-
er programs designed to be used in medical and
industrial image analysis for use in analysing the
drawn output produced by the methods
described above.
The methods described in this paper have
been designed specifically to probe the mental
representation and processing of diagrams
directly without primary reliance on verbal
data. Because of the difficulty of collecting
information about what 'goes on inside people's
heads', especially in something relatively inac-
cessible like diagram processing, the use of dif-
ferent (but complementary) methods of
approaching this task can be considered as pro-
viding some safeguard against making unwar-
ranted inferences from the results obtained.
Each method has its particular strengths and
limitations. For example, the restricted sam-
pling method can be used to explore people's
existing mental representations of particular
types of (generic) diagram since it presents only
a limited amount of information. However, if
the diagram of interest is unique, no pre-exist-
ing mental representation would be expected
and so this method would be inappropriate.
In addition, the task that it uses is quite artificial
(compared with normal diagram processing
Information design journal 7 / 1 (1993) 3-17
16
activity) whereas that involved in the copy-
recall method is somewhat more naturalistic.
However the copy-recall task relies on the
capacity of the subject to draw the diagram,
something that may not be feasible with highly
complex depictions. In such cases a method
involving manipulation of existing diagram
elements (as happens in the first part of the
restricted sampling technique) may be more
appropriate.
These two 'visual' methods are a subset of a
larger group of methods that the author has
developed which, despite using a diverse range
of approaches, provide converging evidence for
fundamental differences between experts' and
novices' mental representation and processing
of diagrams. However, there is still a need for
other approaches that collect verbal data, espe-
cially as a way to clarify the various types of rela-
tions that exist between the graphic elements
which comprise a diagram. Even when graphic
entities are distant from each other and appar-
ently unrelated in terms of their appearance,
they can still be closely related in conceptual
terms. An example of such a relation in the
meteorological domain is present between the
apparently unrelated sets of isobars at the bot-
tom left and bottom right corners of the weather
map used in the copy-recall investigation
(figure 2). Verbal information gathered from
expert subjects indicated that, despite their sep-
aration, these two set are closely related. This is
because they are fragments of the same large-
scale band of isobars that forms a wave-like pat-
tern over the south of the Australian continent.
Below the central part of the map's southern
border, these separate sets of isobars are actual-
ly linked up into a continuous band. Represent-
ing these two distant graphic entities in the
mind as parts of the same larger conceptual
entity leads to a quite different basis for under-
standing the diagram than does representing
them as distinct entities.
 Richard K. Lowe • Diagrammatic information: techniques for exploring its mental representation and processing
CONCLUSION
Because the investigation of how people men-
tally represent and process diagrams has been
comparatively neglected, research tools specifi-
cally developed to suit this area are lacking.
However, with the increasing emphasis on the
cognitive structures and processes involved in
dealing with information in general, it is appro-
priate that the study of the effectiveness of dia-
grams also includes a cognitive perspective. In
the past twenty years, methodologies for study-
ing the subtle and complex cognitive aspects of
tasks such as problem solving and reading have
been developed. Many of the techniques
involved have relied heavily upon verbal output
as a way of building up an understanding of
what happens inside people's heads as they per-
form these tasks. While verbal data can certain-
ly contribute to our understanding of some
aspects of how diagrams are mentally represent-
ed and processed, the capacity to collect high
quality non-verbal data should be seen as cen-
tral to research in this area. A range of rigorous
approaches and techniques needs to be devel-
oped which fully acknowledge the intrinsically
visual nature of diagrams as objects of study
while providing data that are capable of being
analysed and interpreted without inordinate
practical difficulties. The HyperCard versions of
the research tools described in this paper offer
some of the characteristics that would be
required for convenient and appropriate investi-
gation of this area.
Information design journal 7/1 (1993) 3-17
17
REFERENCES
Akin, 0. (1986). Psychology of architectural design.
London: Pion.
Allard, F. & Burnett, N. (1985). Skill in sport. Canadian
Journal of Psychology, 39, 294-312.
Chi, M.T.H., Feltovich, P.J., & Glaser, R. (1981).
Categorisation and representation of physics problems by
experts and novices. Cognitive Science, 5, 1 2 1 - 1 5 1 .
Chi, M.T.H., Glaser, R., & Farr, M.J. (1988). The nature of
expertise. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Deakin, J.M. & Allard, F. (1991). Skilled memory in expert
figure skaters. Memory and Cognition, 19, 709-716.
Edgerton, S.Y. (1980). The renaissance artist as quantifier.
In M.A. Hagen (ed.), The perception of pictures (vol.1, pp.
179-212). New York: Academic Press.
Egan, D.E. & Schwartz, B.J. (1979). Chunking in recall of
symbolic drawings. Memory & Cognition, 7, 149-158.
Ericsson, K.A. & Simon, H.A. (1984). Protocol analysis.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford.
Gilbert, G.N & Mulkay, M. (1984). Opening pandora's box:
A sociological analysis of scientists' discourse.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Larkin, J.H. (1983). The role of problem representation in
physics. In D. Gentner& A.L. Stevens (eds.), Mental mod­
els. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lowe, R.K. (1989). Search strategies and inference in the
exploration of scientific diagrams. Educational
Psychology, 9 (1) 27-44.
Lowe, R.K. (1991a). Expository illustrations: A new chal­
lenge for reading instruction. Australian Journal of
Reading, 14, 215-226.
Lowe, R.K. (1991b, August). Scientists' and non-scientists'
mental representation of graphic material in technical dia­
grams. Paper presented at the Fourth European
Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction,
Turku, Finland.
Macdonald-Ross, M. (1989). Towards a graphic ecology. In
H. Mandl & J.R. Levin (eds.), Knowledge acquisition from
text and pictures {pp. 145-154). North Holland: Elsevier.
Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representation: A dual coding
approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Peeck, J. & Zwarts, J. (1985). Recognition memory for pic­
tures of birds in relation to bird-watching skill. American
Journal of Psychology, 96, 533-566.
van Sommers, P. (1984). Drawing and cognition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.