Exploring the Effect of Animation and Progressive Revealing on Diagrammatic Problem Solving

摘要

We conducted eye-tracking studies of subjects solving the problem of finding shortest paths in a graph using a known procedure (Dijkstra’s algorithm). The goal of these studies was to investigate how people reason about and solve graphically presented problems. First, we compared performance when the graphical display was animated to when the display was static. Second, we compared performance when the display was initially sparse, with detailed information being progressively revealed, to when the display presented all information simultaneously. Results suggest that while animation of the procedure or algorithm does not improve accuracy, animation coupled with progressively revealing objects of interest on the display does improve accuracy and other process measures of problem solving.