Reading direction shapes data visualization perception: insights from Right-To-Left and Left-To-Right user studies

A helping hand putting in order: Visuomotor routines organize numerical and non-numerical sequences in space

Cognitive processes can influence the characteristics of saccadic eye movements. Reading habits, including habitual reading direction, also affect cognitive and visuospatial processes, favouring attention to the side where reading begins. Few studies have investigated the effect of habitual reading direction on saccade directionality of low-cognitive-demand stimuli (such as dots). The current study examined horizontal prosaccade, antisaccade, and self-paced saccade in subjects with two primary habitual reading directions. We hypothesised that saccades responding to the stimuli in subject’s habitual reading direction would show a longer prosaccade latency and lower antisaccade error rate (errors being a reflexive glance to a sudden-appearing target, rather than a saccade away from it). Sixteen young Chinese participants with primary habitual reading direction from left to right and sixteen young Arabic and Persian participants with primary habitual reading direction from right to left were recruited. All subjects spoke/read English as their second language. Subjects needed to look towards a 5°/10° target in the prosaccade task or look towards the mirror image location of the target in the antisaccade task and look between two 10° targets in the self-paced saccade task. Only Arabic and Persian participants showed a shorter and directional prosaccade latency towards 5° stimuli against their habitual reading direction. No significant effect of reading direction on antisaccade latency towards the correct directions was found. Chinese readers were found to generate significantly shorter prosaccade latencies and higher antisaccade directional errors compared with Arabic and Persian readers for stimuli appearing at their habitual reading side. The present pilot study provides insights into the effect of reading habits on saccadic eye movements of low-cognitive-demand stimuli and offers a platform for future studies to investigate the relationship between reading habits and eye movement behaviours.

Cognitive processes can influence the characteristics of saccadic eye movements. Reading habits, including habitual reading direction, also affect cognitive and visuospatial processes, favouring attention to the side where reading begins. Few studies have investigated the effect of habitual reading direction on saccade directionality of low-cognitive-demand stimuli (such as dots). The current study examined horizontal prosaccade, antisaccade, and self-paced saccade in subjects with two primary habitual reading directions. We hypothesised that saccades responding to the stimuli in subject's habitual reading direction would show a longer prosaccade latency and lower antisaccade error rate (errors being a reflexive glance to a sudden-appearing target, rather than a saccade away from it). Sixteen young Chinese participants with primary habitual reading direction from left to right and sixteen young Arabic and Persian participants with primary habitual reading direction from right to left were recruited. All subjects spoke/read English as their second language. Subjects needed to look towards a 5°/10° target in the prosaccade task or look towards the mirror image location of the target in the antisaccade task and look between two 10° targets in the self-paced saccade task. Only Arabic and Persian participants showed a shorter and directional prosaccade latency towards 5° stimuli against their habitual reading direction. No significant effect of reading direction on antisaccade latency towards the correct directions was found. Chinese readers were found to generate significantly shorter prosaccade latencies and higher antisaccade directional errors compared with Arabic and Persian readers for stimuli appearing at their habitual reading side. The present pilot study provides insights into the effect of reading habits on saccadic eye movements of low-cognitive-demand stimuli and offers a platform for future studies to investigate the relationship between reading habits and eye movement behaviours.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between parental educational background, self-efficacy, and children's reading habits in the digital era. Using a correlational quantitative research method, the study involved 408 parents in West Jawa with children aged 4–8 years. The sampling technique used was multistage random sampling. Data were collected through an online Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using ordinal logistic regression. The findings indicate that parental self-efficacy significantly influences children's reading habits (B = 0.247; p < 0.001), while parental educational background does not have a direct significant effect (p > 0.05). The model's Nagelkerke R² value of 0.494 suggests that 49.4% of the variance in children's reading habits can be explained by parental self-efficacy and educational background. These results highlight the importance of parental confidence in supporting children's literacy, which can be enhanced through family literacy intervention programs. Thus, this study contributes new insights into the psychological and environmental factors affecting children's reading habits.

The article explores the development of peasants’ reading habits over the 18th century in the Latvian-inhabited Lutheran regions of Russia’s Baltic provinces Courland/Kurzeme and Latvian Livonia/Vidzeme. By analysing the transition from intensive to extensive reading patterns, as well as from loud and ceremonial to silent and private reading, insight into the available statistical sources and information from subscription lists is provided and the observations of contemporaries are scrutinized. The views on Latvian peasants’ reading habits expressed by Baltic-German Lutheran parsons Friedrich Bernhard Blaufuß, Joachim Baumann, Christian David Lenz, Johann Friedrich Casimir Rosenberger, Alexander Johann Stender, as well as those published by Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen, are discussed within the context of urban and middle-class reading patterns. While the number of literate peasants in the 18th century was high, reaching one third in Courland and two thirds in Livonia by the turn of the 19th century, the motivation for reading and everyday habits differed, and while extensive reading increased, before the 1840s, the Baltic rural so­ciety did not see a phenomenon similar to the European middle-class rea­ding revolution. The article focuses on differentiating among various types of readers, divided according to their confessional lines (Herrnhutian Brethren or Lutheran Orthodox Church), social stan­ding (reading patterns were different depending on rural professions) or genera­tion (the older generation tended to prefer loud and ceremonial religious reading while the younger generation more often adopted silent, private and secular reading). The collective reading of books has been explored by demonstrating how it allowed combining the reading of books with other activities and also performed a socializing function. The avai­lable sources demonstrate that quiet reading did not replace reading aloud, in the same way that extensive reading did not replace intensive, but all reading practices continued to co-exist alongside each other, creating an increasingly diverse and saturated reading experience.

User studies play a vital role in data visualization research because they help measure the strengths and weaknesses of different visualization techniques quantitatively. In addition, they provide insight into what makes one technique more effective than another; and they are used to validate research contributions in the field of information visualization. For example, a new algorithm, visual encoding, or interaction technique is not considered a contribution unless it has been validated to be better than the state of the art and its competing alternatives or has been validated to be useful to intended users. However, conducting user studies is challenging, time consuming, and expensive. User studies generally requires careful experimental designs, iterative refinement, recruitment of study participants, careful management of participants during the run of the studies, accurately collecting user responses, and expertise in statistical analysis of study results. There are several variables that are taken into consideration which can impact user study outcome if not carefully managed. Hence the process of conducting user studies successfully can take several weeks to months. In this dissertation, we investigated how to design an online framework that can reduce the overhead involved in conducting controlled user studies involving web-based visualizations. Our main goal in this research was to lower the overhead of evaluating data visualizations quantitatively through user studies. To this end, we leveraged current research opportunities to provide a framework design that reduces the overhead involved in designing and running controlled user studies of data visualizations. Specifically, we explored the design and implementation of an open-source framework and an online service (VisUnit) that allows visualization designers to easily configure user studies for their web-based data visualizations, deploy user studies online, collect user responses, and analyze incoming results automatically. This allows evaluations to be done more easily, cheaply, and frequently to rapidly test hypotheses about visualization designs. We evaluated the effectiveness of our framework (VisUnit) by showing that it can be used to replicate 84% of 101 controlled user studies published in IEEE Information Visualization conferences between 1995 and 2015. We evaluated the efficiency of VisUnit by showing that graduate students can use it to design sample user studies in less than an hour. Our contributions are two-fold: first, we contribute a flexible design and implementation that facilitates the creation of a wide range of user studies with limited effort; second, we provide an evaluation of our design that shows that it can

Discovering visual concept structure with sparse and incomplete tags

The mental number line (MNL) represents numbers spatially, with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right, as demonstrated by the SNARC effect. This effect is influenced by reading direction, with left-to-right languages (e.g., English) showing a stronger SNARC effect compared to right-to-left languages (e.g., Hebrew). However, previous research has shown the absence of SNARC in Turkish samples, despite a left-to-right reading orientation. This study explored the role of reading habits in the SNARC effect among Turkish participants (N = 50). Participants, categorized as light or heavy readers, completed a parity judgment task. Both one-sample t-tests and Bayesian analysis revealed no SNARC effect in either group. These findings suggest that reading habits alone may not explain the absence of SNARC in Turkish participants. The lack of the effect may be influenced by other factors, such as cultural differences or the specific characteristics of the Turkish language.

Background: Reading habits are believed to have an important role in the association between number and space; however, the effect of the spatial numerical association of response codes (SNARC) as a casual involvement has not been fully documented. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the SNARC effect in individuals with mixed-reading Persian language in which the text is read from right to left but the numbers are read from left to right. Moreover, because of the critical role of visuospatial attention in SNARC effect, which is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, the SNARC effect was also examined in a group of patients with schizophrenia. Methods: Using number comparison tasks and parity judgment tasks, the SNARC effect was first examined in a group of Persian speaking university students and then in a group of Persian speaking schizophrenic patients. Results: The results showed the standard SNARC effect in students with the mixed-reading habit. Moreover, the results revealed a comparable SNARC effect in schizophrenia patients and controls. Conclusions: Our results suggested that the direction of reading of numbers might influence the relationship between numbers and space, not the direction of text reading. Also, the semantic representation of numbers is preserved in patients with schizophrenia.

In this study, 80 Uygur children and Han children aged 5 to 6 years within a Chinese reading context were tested by using an SMI portable eye tracker to record their eye movements in picture and text fixation during picture book reading. The findings are as follows. First, Uygur children aged 5 to 6 years primarily focus on pictures in the process of reading picture books. Their level of fixation of key picture information (main characters) is constantly increasing. An important reading characteristic for Uygur children at this age is to understand picture books through capturing key picture information, whereas Han children at this age show signs of shifting from reading the key picture information to overall information processing, such as obtaining information from the picture details, background information, and text information about their relationship with the key pictures. Second, 5- to 6-year-old Uygur children’s fixation on text begins to have elementary development with age, but their text fixation level significantly lags behind Han children, and their fixation of Chinese characters is still in the elementary stage. Third, 5- to 6-year-old Uygur children’s reading direction is potentially affected by their habit of reading their native language, but this age period is also an important stage for the early development of Uygur children’s second language (Chinese).

BackgroundReproductive, maternal, newborn, child health, and nutrition (RMNCH&N) data is an indispensable tool for program and policy decisions in low- and middle-income countries. However, being equipped with evidence doesn’t necessarily translate to program and policy changes. This study aimed to characterize data visualization interpretation capacity and preferences among RMNCH&N Tanzanian program implementers and policymakers (“decision-makers”) to design more effective approaches towards promoting evidence-based RMNCH&N decisions in Tanzania.MethodsWe conducted 25 semi-structured interviews in Kiswahili with junior, mid-level, and senior RMNCH&N decision-makers working in Tanzanian government institutions. We used snowball sampling to recruit participants with different rank and roles in RMNCH&N decision-making. Using semi-structured interviews, we probed participants on their statistical skills and data use, and asked participants to identify key messages and rank prepared RMNCH&N visualizations. We used a grounded theory approach to organize themes and identify findings.ResultsThe findings suggest that data literacy and statistical skills among RMNCH&N decision-makers in Tanzania varies. Most participants demonstrated awareness of many critical factors that should influence a visualization choice—audience, key message, simplicity—but assessments of data interpretation and preferences suggest that there may be weak knowledge of basic statistics. A majority of decision-makers have not had any statistical training since attending university. There appeared to be some discomfort with interpreting and using visualizations that are not bar charts, pie charts, and maps.ConclusionsDecision-makers must be able to understand and interpret RMNCH&N data they receive to be empowered to act. Addressing inadequate data literacy and presentation skills among decision-makers is vital to bridging gaps between evidence and policymaking. It would be beneficial to host basic data literacy and visualization training for RMNCH&N decision-makers at all levels in Tanzania, and to expand skills on developing key messages from visualizations.

Accounting for individual differences can improve the effectiveness of visualization design. While the role of visual attention in visualization interpretation is well recognized, existing work often overlooks how this behavior varies based on visual literacy levels. Based on data from a 235-participant user study covering three visualization tests (mini-VLAT, CALVI, and SGL), we show that distinct attention patterns in visual data exploration can correlate with participants' literacy levels: While experts (high-scorers) generally show a strong attentional focus, novices (low-scorers) focus less and explore more. We then propose two computational models leveraging these insights: Lit2Sal - a novel visual saliency model that predicts observer attention given their visualization literacy level, and Sal2Lit - a model to predict visual literacy from human visual attention data. Our quantitative and qualitative evaluation demonstrates that Lit2Sal outperforms state-of-the-art saliency models with literacy-aware considerations. Sal2Lit predicts literacy with 86% accuracy using a single attention map, providing a time-efficient supplement to literacy assessment that only takes less than a minute. Taken together, our unique approach to consider individual differences in salience models and visual attention in literacy assessments paves the way for new directions in personalized visual data communication to enhance understanding.

Exploration of images after stimulus onset is initially biased to the left. Here, we studied the causes of such an asymmetry and investigated effects of reading habits, text primes, and priming by systematically biased eye movements on this spatial bias in visual exploration. Bilinguals first read text primes with right-to-left (RTL) or left-to-right (LTR) reading directions and subsequently explored natural images. In Experiment 1, native RTL speakers showed a leftward free-viewing shift after reading LTR primes but a weaker rightward bias after reading RTL primes. This demonstrates that reading direction dynamically influences the spatial bias. However, native LTR speakers who learned an RTL language late in life showed a leftward bias after reading either LTR or RTL primes, which suggests the role of habit formation in the production of the spatial bias. In Experiment 2, LTR bilinguals showed a slightly enhanced leftward bias after reading LTR text primes in their second language. This might contribute to the differences of native RTL and LTR speakers observed in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, LTR bilinguals read normal (LTR, habitual reading) and mirrored left-to-right (mLTR, nonhabitual reading) texts. We observed a strong leftward bias in both cases, indicating that the bias direction is influenced by habitual reading direction and is not secondary to the actual reading direction. This is confirmed in Experiment 4, in which LTR participants were asked to follow RTL and LTR moving dots in prior image presentation and showed no change in the normal spatial bias. In conclusion, the horizontal bias is a dynamic property and is modulated by habitual reading direction.

Over the past decades, a growing literature on perceptual bias has investigated the factors that determine normal performance in simple visuospatial tasks, such as line bisection and aesthetic preference. Normal right-handed participants may exhibit spatial asymmetries in these tasks with a tendency to bisect to the left of the objective middle in line bisection and a preference for images with the center of interest in their right half in aesthetic preference tasks. These patterns of performance have mostly been attributed to hemispheric imbalance. Other explanations have also been put forth to explain the spatial asymmetries seen in the normal population. Here we review studies that target the role of reading direction on visuospatial tasks. In addition to presenting several of our studies that investigated differences in line bisection and aesthetic preference performances between left-to-right readers (French) and right-to-left readers (Israeli), we present a discussion of the existing literature on reading direction, culture and visuospatial processing. The findings are discussed regarding the interaction between cultural factors, such as reading habits, and biological factors, such as cerebral lateralization, in visual perception.

Perceptual bias in simple visuospatial tasks, such as line bisection seen among healthy dextrals, has often been attributed to the hemispheric activation hypothesis. The often reported leftward perceptual bias was explained by an activation of the right hemisphere during visuospatial tasks. However, imposed scanning direction and stimuli saliency have also been used to explain these spatial asymmetries. One example of scanning direction is the well-trained one resulting from reading direction. Here, we present studies that target the role of reading direction on nonverbal tasks: line bisection, esthetic preference, and straight-ahead pointing by comparing left-to-right and right-to-left readers. The findings are discussed regarding the interaction between cultural factors, such as reading habits, and biological factors, such as cerebral lateralization.