Stanford Advisors

All Publications

  • Evaluating convergence between two data visualization literacy assessments. Cognitive research: principles and implications Brockbank, E., Verma, A., Lloyd, H., Huey, H., Padilla, L., Fan, J. E. 2025; 10 (1): 15

    Abstract

    Data visualizations play a crucial role in communicating patterns in quantitative data, making data visualization literacy a key target of STEM education. However, it is currently unclear to what degree different assessments of data visualization literacy measure the same underlying constructs. Here, we administered two widely used graph comprehension assessments (Galesic and Garcia-Retamero in Med Dec Mak 31:444-457, 2011; Lee et al. in IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph 235:51-560, 2016) to both a university-based convenience sample and a demographically representative sample of adult participants in the USA (N=1,113). Our analysis of individual variability in test performance suggests that overall scores are correlated between assessments and associated with the amount of prior coursework in mathematics. However, further exploration of individual error patterns suggests that these assessments probe somewhat distinct components of data visualization literacy, and we do not find evidence that these components correspond to the categories that guided the design of either test (e.g., questions that require retrieving values rather than making comparisons). Together, these findings suggest opportunities for development of more comprehensive assessments of data visualization literacy that are organized by components that better account for detailed behavioral patterns.

    View details for DOI 10.1186/s41235-025-00622-9

    View details for PubMedID 40188224

  • Repeated rock, paper, scissors play reveals limits in adaptive sequential behavior. Cognitive psychology Brockbank, E., Vul, E. 2024; 151: 101654

    Abstract

    How do people adapt to others in adversarial settings? Prior work has shown that people often violate rational models of adversarial decision-making in repeated interactions. In particular, in mixed strategy equilibrium (MSE) games, where optimal action selection entails choosing moves randomly, people often do not play randomly, but instead try to outwit their opponents. However, little is known about the adaptive reasoning that underlies these deviations from random behavior. Here, we examine strategic decision-making across repeated rounds of rock, paper, scissors, a well-known MSE game. In experiment 1, participants were paired with bot opponents that exhibited distinct stable move patterns, allowing us to identify the bounds of the complexity of opponent behavior that people can detect and adapt to. In experiment 2, bot opponents instead exploited stable patterns in the human participants' moves, providing a symmetrical bound on the complexity of patterns people can revise in their own behavior. Across both experiments, people exhibited a robust and flexible attention to transition patterns from one move to the next, exploiting these patterns in opponents and modifying them strategically in their own moves. However, their adaptive reasoning showed strong limitations with respect to more sophisticated patterns. Together, results provide a precise and consistent account of the surprisingly limited scope of people's adaptive decision-making in this setting.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101654

    View details for PubMedID 38657419