Stanney K M, Salvendy G
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management System, University of Central Florida, Orlando 32816, USA.
Ergonomics. 1995 Jun;38(6):1184-98. doi: 10.1080/00140139508925181.
This study investigated the use of visual mediators to facilitate information access by low spatial individuals. Based on theories of adaptive learning and field-dependence, two human-computer interfaces were developed which were intended to compensate for the inability of low spatial individuals to readily construct visual mental models of a menu system's structure. The two compensatory interfaces included: a 2D visual hierarchy and a linear structure. The information search performance of high and low spatial individuals was compared on the two compensatory interfaces and a third challenge match interface, which challenged individuals to construct a mental model of a hierarchical menu system in order to perform efficiently. The visual mediators were successful in accommodating low spatial individuals, as indicated by the lack of any significant performance differences being detected between the high and low spatial groups on the two compensatory interfaces. High spatial individuals outperformed low spatial individuals only when information search tasks required the use of spatial ability in mentally constructing a model of the organization and structure of embedded task information. The key factor in the accommodation process was the elimination of the need to mentally visualize the structure of embedded task information. These results indicate that visualization techniques can be successfully used to enhance the information search performance of low spatial individuals.
本研究调查了使用视觉媒介来帮助低空间能力个体获取信息的情况。基于适应性学习和场依存性理论，开发了两种人机界面，旨在弥补低空间能力个体难以快速构建菜单系统结构视觉心理模型的缺陷。这两种补偿性界面包括：二维视觉层次结构和线性结构。在这两种补偿性界面以及第三种挑战性匹配界面上，比较了高空间能力个体和低空间能力个体的信息搜索表现，第三种界面要求个体构建分层菜单系统的心理模型以便高效执行任务。视觉媒介成功地适应了低空间能力个体，这体现在两个补偿性界面上高空间能力组和低空间能力组之间未检测到任何显著的表现差异。只有当信息搜索任务需要运用空间能力在心理上构建嵌入式任务信息的组织和结构模型时，高空间能力个体的表现才优于低空间能力个体。适应过程中的关键因素是消除了在心理上可视化嵌入式任务信息结构的需求。这些结果表明，可视化技术可以成功地用于提高低空间能力个体的信息搜索表现。
