Title page for ETD etd-09222003-194120

Type of Document

Dissertation

Author

Normand, Matthew P

URN

etd-09222003-194120

Title

The Usue Of Job Aids To Facilitate Accurate Visual Analysis Of Graphed Within-Subject Behavioral Data

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology, Department of

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Jon S. Bailey	Committee Chair
Brian Loney	Committee Member
Bruce Thyer	Committee Member
Frank Johnson	Committee Member
K. Anders Ericsson	Committee Member

Keywords

Visual Data Analysis

Date of Defense

2003-07-02

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

The present study compared the effects of two job aids on the behavior of visual data analysts.
Nineteen participants were randomly assigned to an active job aid group, a passive job aid group,
or a control group and viewed a series of 60 within-subject behavioral graphs. They were asked
to determine whether the graphs depicted a change that was attributable to the described
intervention and were instructed to talk aloud as they viewed each graph. Results indicated that
participant answers agreed with the answers determined by a panel of experts for fewer than 50% of the graphs. Participants were more likely to report an intervention effect (98% of the graphs) than were the panel of experts (30% of the graphs). The job aids did not improve participant agreement with the panel of experts. The verbal protocol analysis revealed that the job aids did increase attention to important graph characteristics (i.e., trend and variability) but the participants appeared to lack the necessary repertoire to appropriately modify their decisions based on the observed data characteristics. Mean level and mean shift were the characteristics most often attend to by participants. It is argued that the results obtained have important implications for the training and credentialing of professionals employing visual data analysis, especially behavior analysts.

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