Speaker: Heike Hofmann, Professor, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University

Title: What Do People See? Testing Participants' Visual Literacy Skills In A National Survey

Abstract: The use of charts is a key component in scientific communication. But what do people actually 'see'? Unfortunately, much of our knowledge is based on small samples of a mostly college-educated population. Building on the foundations of Cleveland and McGill's work in graphical perception, we are employing a large, nationally-representative, probability-based panel of survey respondents to test elements of cognition and perception in statistical charts. Our findings show that there are large differences in panelists' abilities to read charts when taking demographic background into account.