Spatial Transformations in Graph Comprehension

Abstract

Although it is apparent that people are able to make inferences from graphs, it is presently unclear how they do so, even from simple graphs. Current theories of graph comprehension are largely silent about the processes by which such inferences are made (e.g., Freedman & Shah, 2002; Pinker, 1990). We propose that people use spatial reasoning, in the form of spatial transformations (Trafton, Trickett, & Mintz, in press), to answer inferential questions. Spatial transformations are cognitive operations that a person performs on internal or external visualizations, such as graphs. They occur when people must mentally create or delete something (e.g., a line) on the image in order to facilitate problem solving, and may be related to hypothetical drawing (Shimojima & Fukaya, 2003). This paper investigates the use of spatial transformations when people need to make inferences from graphs.