Compatibility Principle Research Articles

Another test of sensor lines on control panels

In this experiment all panels had four circular displays arranged in a square on a vertical surface and four controls aligned vertically to the right of the displays. Two panels had linkages between controls and displays which earlier research had shown to be compatible, the other two had incompatible linkages. Each of these four panels was tested with and without sensor lines showing the linkages between controls and displays. Ninety-six subjects each made 128 trials on one of the eight panels. A subject's task was to respond as quickly as possible by pushing the correct control to extinguish a light when it appeared in one of the displays. Sensor lines had no effect on performance with the compatible panels but impaired performance on the incompatible panels. The results also confirm again the potency of the compatibility principle: responses were faster and fewer errors were made when using the compatible panels.

Information Displays for Medical Diagnosis

The Proximity Compatibility Principle (PCP) states that a display format is well-suited to a given task if the information sources in the display are related to the same degree as information sources in the task. While experiments have shown that PCP can provide useful display design guidelines for many types of tasks, diagnosis tasks have not seemed to conform to PCP's predictions. The current experiment compared performance with integral, configural, and separable displays in three diagnosis tasks based on a medical diagnosis technique. As predicted, the integral display allowed the best performance. The results indicate that PCP is a useful theory for diagnosis tasks, but different diagnosis tasks can differ widely in their task demands.

Emergent Features and Perceptual Glue in Static Bar Graphs: Moderating Effects of Salience

Many studies to date have supported empirically the reality of the so-called proximity compatibility principle. This principle states that emergent features tend to have beneficial effects on integrated and detrimental effects on focused task performance. In order to clarify the role of salience of various graphical features in relationship to this principle, an experiment was conducted in which the effect of emergent features and the salience of both graphical indicators and emergent features (if present) was studied on integrated and focused task performance using a graph reading task. It was found that, though the principle was confirmed in this study if its relationship with salience is ignored, taking salience of both lower-order and higher-order graphical features into consideration can significantly complicate the basic form of the principle. Illustrations are provided of how two types of salience can interact both with each other and with the type of task in rather unexpected ways. In the discussion the focus is on exploring the significance of these findings for furthering our theoretical understanding of these and similar phenomena from the field of graphical perception and for the practice of graph design.

Comparing 2D and 3D Displays for Trend Estimation: The Effects of Display Augmentation

The proximity compatibility principle (PCP) predicts that integrated displays will show superior performance to separated displays for integrated tasks. Hollands, Pierce, and Magee (1998) compared 2D and 3D displays for a trend estimation task and found that 2D displays were better than 3D displays for integrated tasks. These results were inconsistent with the predictions of the PCP. The present study added line and mesh connections to the integrated display format to make existing emergent features more salient. Four display formats were tested: 2D, 3D Control, 3D Lines, and 3D Mesh. Twenty-four participants completed 256 trials evaluating the effect of display format, vergence rate, vergence direction, and starting distance on trend estimation. Results showed advantages for the 3D Mesh and 3D Line displays. A general advantage was found for faster vergence rates, and converging trends when the lines start closer together.

Directional stimulus-response compatibility: a test of three alternative principles

The basis of directional stimulus-response compatibility was studied using a task in which 128 participants moved a cursor into targets with a joystick, resembling the operation of certain industrial and construction equipment. Compatible and incompatible versions of three alternative compatibility principles were compared in all combinations. Visual Field (VF) compatibility was present if cursor and controlling limb movement were in the same direction in the visual field, Control Display (CD) compatibility meant that the control motion was in the same direction as, and parallel to, cursor motion, and Muscle Synergy (MS) compatibility was defined as use of the muscle synergy normally associated with the required direction as seen in the visual field. VF-compatible conditions had significantly shorter reaction, movement and homing times, and fewer reversal errors, for males and females, in two testing sites. These advantages were maintained over practice. VF compatibility was confirmed as a robust spatial compatibility principle that is affected by neither the orientation of the operator's limb or head, nor the muscle synergy used in executing the task. It offers not only more rapid performance, but also a markedly reduced rate of potentially dangerous directional errors. The relationship between this finding and theoretical aspects of stimulus-response compatibility is discussed.

Does display configuration affect information sampling performance?

This investigation sought to determine the influence of a visual display's spatial configuration on participant's ability to sample linguistic information. Line drawings circumscribed 36 areas shaped like squares, rectangles, ‘T’, ‘L’, and ‘+’, among others. Each such ‘shape’ was presented for 1000 ms, followed by a 12-letter matrix presented for 50 ms. Participants then reported the letters that would have been inside the boundary contour if it were superimposed on the letter matrix. The results indicated that single, spatially contiguous areas could be monitored better than separate areas; the recall of simple configurations seemed better than that of more complex ones, while outlying positions tended to be ignored. The data were thus viewed as compatible with recent theories of perceptual organization in displays, such as the notion of ‘common region’ and the proximity compatibility principle. Informational complexity (IC) proved somewhat better than figural compactness (FC) in accounting for the data in terms of information theory. The findings may help to specify the optimal spatial configurations for visually displayed linguistic information in a variety of contexts, including head-up displays (HUDs).

The performance and workload effects of task re-location during automation

We report an experiment which investigated the performance and workload effects associated with the functional grouping of automated displays in a multi-task flight simulation. Eleven rated pilots performed tracking, systems monitoring, and target acquisition sub-tasks in manual conditions and when the targeting task was automated. In the latter condition, the target acquisition display was relocated either proximally, distally, or neutrally with respect to the functionally similar, systems monitoring display. It was hypothesized that an automated task display relocated near its functional equivalent (the proximal condition) would result in increased performance efficiency and lower perceived workload compared to the other relocation positions. An advantage for adaptive automation was confirmed with pilots exhibiting less tracking error, lower monitoring response times, lower target response times, and increased percentage of target responses during automated compared with manual conditions. Results did not confirm the hypothesized benefits for display location. However, when interpreted within the Proximity Compatibility Principle framework where both perceptual and processing proximity are recognized, results confirmed an advantage for the functional grouping layout of the display. Specifically, the proximal grouping condition was the only condition that resulted in both performance and workload benefits. Some observations on the implications for display design in systems using automation are provided.

Mixing and Matching Lower-Level Codes for Object Displays: Evidence for Two Sources of Proximity Compatibility

The proximity compatibility principle (PCP) proposes that visually unitary configurations of data values, such as object displays, will support information integration better than will more separable formats. In the present study formats were created by either mixing or matching pairs of lower-level codes (i.e., linear extent, angle, and color). Performance with object and separable configurations of these codes was compared for two integration tasks: system state classifications requiring either (1) comparisons of values or (2) identification of conjunctions of values. Object displays formed with matched codes were more likely to facilitate comparisons, whereas object displays formed from mixed codes were more likely to facilitate conjunction identification. These data suggest that two mechanisms may underlie object display advantages for integration-one based on relational properties or emergent features and one based on the efficient processing of the lowerlevel codes themselves .

Displaying Quantitative Information in Two and Three Dimensions

Subjects made trend and difference estimates in an experiment with three display types: two-dimensional (2D), three-dimensional with monocular cues (3D mono), and three-dimensional with monocular cues and stereopsis (3D stereo). The results showed a general accuracy advantage for 2D displays, even for global trend estimates. Binocular stereopsis appeared to provide a slight advantage in accuracy for trend estimation. The data are partially consistent with the predictions of the Proximity Compatibility Principle. Possible mental operations used with the various displays are discussed.

The Proximity Compatibility Principle: Its Psychological Foundation and Relevance to Display Design

In this report we describe the concept of the proximity compatibility principle (PCP) and demonstrate its relevance to display design: Displays relevant to a common task or mental operation (close task or mental proximity) should be rendered close together in perceptual space (close display proximity). Different forms of task proximity are discussed, as are the different information-processing mechanisms that underlie the effects of the several different design manipulations of display proximity. Experimental data that support this process-based elaboration of PCP are then reviewed in design contexts relating to aviation, graphs, display layout, and decision aiding.

Preference Reversals in Monetary and Life Expectancy Evaluations

Two experiments demonstrate a new type of preference reversal. In life expectancy evaluations, health items (e.g., a new treatment that would give you perfect 20/20 vision) were preferred to commodities (e.g., 1 day of vacation in Bermuda), but in monetary evaluations, commodities were preferred to health items. These reversals result from the pattern of similarity of commodities and health items to money and life expectancy and are therefore an example of Tversky, Sattath, and Slovic′s (1988) semantic compatibility principle.

Information Processing Strategies in Riskless Preference Reversals: The Prominence Effect

A preference reversal occurs whenever an individual prefers one alternative to another in one response mode (e.g., choice) but shows the opposite preference order in another response mode (e.g., attractiveness ratings, matching). In previous studies of riskless multiattribute preferences the most common reversal pattern involves a prominence effect: The more important attribute has a greater influence in choices than in matching judgments. Previous research has suggested that the prominence effect can be accounted for by the strategy compatibility principle, which states that response tasks can evoke different decision strategies and these strategies determine the relative impact of the various attributes. This article attempts to establish the mediating role of decision processes in determining the occurrence and pattern of riskless preference reversals. In a process tracing experiment we replicate previous findings of a prominence effect in riskless two-attribute preferences. In addition, there are clear differences in process between response modes, and these differences are consistent with previous explanations of riskless preference reversals. Finally, we are able to predict subject level differences in choice preferences and choice versus matching reversals using measures of information search.

Buyers' Pricing Behavior for Risky Alternatives: Encoding Processes and Preference Reversals

Numerous studies have examined individuals' minimum selling prices or certainty equivalents for lotteries as measures of preference, but few have examined maximum buying prices. Because every transaction involves a buyer as well as a seller, buyers' pricing behavior is of interest in its own right. Two prospect theory based descriptive models of maximum buying prices—the integration and segregation models—are developed from different assumptions about cognitive encoding processes. The models were tested experimentally using an incentive-compatible cash payoff scheme in which maximum buying prices for bets and choices between bets were elicited from subjects. Surprisingly, observed maximum buying prices were far below expected values even for bets with probabilities of winning near 1.0. This suggests buyers are strongly influenced by loss aversion and that the conventional assumption that the buying price for a risky alternative is a reduction in the alternative's payoffs fails to describe behavior. Instead, it appears subjects predominately employed a segregation encoding process in which the buying price was encoded separately from the bet's payoffs and treated as a sure loss. However, an additional result was not explained adequately by either encoding model: Buying prices were less risk averse than choices for $3 expected value bets—creating preference reversals of the standard kind (Lichtenstein and Slovic 1971)—but more risk averse for $100 expected value bets—creating reverse preference reversals (Casey 1991). Implications for the scale compatibility principle (Tversky et al. 1988) are discussed. Two theoretical approaches are outlined which offer promise in the development of a unified model of price judgments and choice preferences under risk.

Two- and Three-Dimensional Displays for Aviation: A Theoretical and Empirical Comparison

The requirements for a modem comparison of two-dimensional planar and three-dimensional perspective displays for aviation are outlined. Previous studies making such a comparison are reviewed; they are found to lack the displays and tasks required in order to fully evaluate the relative tradeoffs of two- and three-dimensional displays, as predicted by the proximity compatibility principle (PCP; Wickens & Andre, 1990). Two displays incorporating prediction and preview were designed and compared: one display with three orthogonal spatial views and one display with a single, three-dimensional, inside-out perspective view. Performance measures included (a) flight-path tracking accuracy during routine flight and during events designed to precipitate the loss of situational awareness; (b) accuracies and response times for three different judgment events as suggested by the PCP; (c) the incidence of integrated control actions in several dimensions; and (d) subjective workload ratings. The results show that the perspective display fostered superior lateral and altitude flight-path tracking accuracy, whereas the two-dimensional display fostered superior airspeed tracking accuracy. We concluded (a) that three-dimensional displays are a viable option for aviation cockpits within the limitations put forth by the PCP regarding the trade-offs between displays and (b) that human-factors designers attempting to apply the PCP to the design of complex displays should be extremely careful when defining "tasks."

Spatial and Temporal (RAPCOM) Visual Display Formats and the Proximity Compatibility Principle

RAPCOM (rapid communication) displays involve temporal presentation of information in the same spatial location and have been suggested to have useful potential for human-computer interactions involving high information transfer rates (cf., Matin and Boff, 1988). An experiment was conducted to evaluate the relative effectiveness of various spatial and temporal display formats for presenting information pertaining to the likelihood of aircraft stall using the simulated dynamics of a light aircraft. Specific spatial and temporal characteristics of the display formats were based on the proximity compatibility principle (PCP) which attempts to integrate findings regarding the benefits and limitations of displaying multiple sources of information in similar or “proximal” ways (Wickens and Andre, 1990; Carswell and Wickens, 1990). The effectiveness of these display formats were compared for judgments which required the integration of three display parameters (airspeed, bank, and flap angle) to determine stall probability with those requiring focused attention necessitating the recall of the specific value of one of the parameters. For the complex monitoring task used in this experiment, temporal display formats were generally associated with the most accurate performance. Furthermore, the overall pattern of results was not consistent with design guidelines suggested by the PCP, and suggest difficulties when attempting to define “proximity” in terms of physical metrics based on spatial or temporal parameters.

Judgments of change and proportion in graphical perception.

Subjects judged change and proportion when viewing graphs in two experiments. Change was judged more quickly and accurately with line and bar graphs than with pie charts or tiered bar graphs, and this difference was larger when the rate of change was smaller. Without a graduated scale, proportion was judged more quickly and accurately with pie charts and divided bar graphs than with line or bar graphs. Perception is direct when it requires simpler or fewer mental operations; we propose that perception of change is direct with line and bar graphs, whereas perception of proportion is direct with pie charts and divided bar graphs. The results are also consistent with the proximity compatibility principle. Suggestions for improving the design of graphical displays are given.

Use of Computer Graphics and Cluster Analysis in Aiding Relational Judgment

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the use of computer graphics and cluster analysis in aiding human relational judgment. The experimental stimuli were similarity matrices from real-world data sources. The experimental tasks required subjects to detect the number of clusters or to judge the similarity between a designated pair of objects in the displayed matrix. Each matrix was either ordered randomly or arranged according to the results of cluster analysis. In the first experiment each matrix was displayed in one of four schemes: number scheme, color scheme, size scheme, or three-dimensional (3D) vertical line scheme. In the second experiment the matrices were displayed as 3D vertical lines with or without surface contour. The results indicated that the cluster-ordered displays greatly facilitated cluster detection performance in all but the 3D line scheme. Matrix ordering had no effect on the value judgment task. The perceptual compatibility principle and theories of perceptual grouping provided predictions and were tested in this experiment.

Cue Compatibility and Framing in Advertising

Findings from a laboratory experiment support three research propositions on how processing goals at ad exposure and retrieval cues in the brand decision environment affect recall of communication effects and ad and brand judgments. The first proposition, the “cue compatibility principle,” is that compatibility or a match between the type of information stored in memory at encoding and the type of information present as cues at retrieval is necessary for successful recall of communication effects (e.g., cognitive responses). The second proposition is that though retrieval cues can facilitate recall of strongly associated information, they can inhibit recall of other, less strongly associated information in memory. The third proposition is that because processing goals and retrieval cues affect the accessibility and diagnosticity of communication effects, they “frame” brand judgments by influencing (1) the importance or weight placed on different types of communication effects in ad and brand judgments, and therefore (2) the actual favorableness of the judgments reached. The theoretical and managerial implications of these memory factors on advertising effectiveness are discussed.

Use of Computer Graphics and Cluster Analysis in Aiding Relational Judgment

An experiment is conducted to investigate the use of computer graphics and cluster analysis in aiding human relational judgment. The experimental stimuli were similarity matrices from real-world data sources. The experimental tasks required the subjects to detect the number of clusters or to judge the similarity value between a designated pair of objects in the displayed matrix. Each matrix was either ordered randomly or arranged according to the results of cluster analysis. Each matrix was displayed in one of four schemes: number scheme, color scheme, size scheme or 3-D vertical line scheme. The results indicated that the cluster-ordered displays greatly facilitated cluster detection performance in three out of the four display schemes, with the 3-D line scheme as the only exception. Matrix ordering had no effect on the value judgment task. The proximity compatibility principle (Wickens, 1987) and theories of perceptual grouping (Garner, 1976; Pomerantz, 1981) provided predictions and were tested in this experiment. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.

Fricative‐vowel coarticulatory effects in Arabic

Using LPC analysis, an investigation of anticipatory vowel coarticulation was made of 100‐ms segments of Arabic voiceless fricatives (/h, x, ∫, and s/) spoken in isolation and in three prevocalic contexts (/ɑ, i, and u/) by three native speakers. The degree of coarticulation for each prevocalic fricative segment was determined by assessing both the amount of spectral change from the isolated production, and the relationship of prevocalic fricative peaks to vowel formats. Strong coarticulation was observed for all speakers in all three vowel contexts for the pharyngeal fricative /h/, while minimal coarticulatory effects were present for the dental fricative /s/. Vowel specific trends were evident for the palatal /∫/ and velar /x/ fricatives: strong coarticulation was seen for /xi/, /xu/, /∫i/ and/ ∫ɑ/ and not the remaining utterances. Individual differences were evident with respect to degree of coarticulation. The three speakers behaved similarly for only three of the 12 fricative‐vowel utterances. Results are discussed in terms of the articulatory compatibility principle. Present address: Biosciences Lab., 3M Center, St. Paul, MN.