Individual Differences in Graphical Reasoning

People sometimes appear to build analogical representations in order to reason about graphical information. In this paper we consider the extent to which the tendency to represent information analogically calls on spatial resources. We also examine whether people who represent graphical information analogically also represent numerical information using a spatial number line. Forty-eight adult participants carried out a series of graphical reasoning, number judgement and spatial working memory tasks. Evidence was found to suggest that people were forming analogical representations in both the number judgement and graphical reasoning tasks. Performance on the spatial memory task was positively associated with a measure of the tendency to use analogical representations on graph task. In addition, measures of the use of analogical representations for the graph and number tasks were associated. We interpret our results as providing further evidence that people build analogical representati...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: DIAGRAMS
• Authors: Aidan Feeney, John Adams, Lara Webber, Michael R. Ewbank
• Keywords: Analogical Representations, Artificial Intelligence, DIAGRAMS 2004, Graphical Information, Spatial