Qualitatively Coherent Representation Makes Decision-Making Easier with Binary-Colored Multi-Attribute Tables: An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

We aimed to identify the ways in which coloring cells affected decision-making in the context of binary-colored multi-attribute tables, using eye movement data. In our black-white attribute tables, the value of attributes was limited to two (with a certain threshold for each attribute) and each cell of the table was colored either black or white on the white background. We compared the two natural ways of systematic color assignment: “quantitatively coherent” ways and “qualitatively coherent” ways (namely, the ways in which the black-white distinction represented the quantitative amount distinction, and the ways in which the black-white distinction represented the quality distinction). The former consists of the following two types: (Type 1) “larger is black,” where the larger value-level was represented by black, and “smaller is white,” and (Type 2) “smaller is black.” The latter consisted of the following two types: (Type 3) “better is black,” and (Type 4) “worse is black.” We obtained the following two findings. [Result 1] The qualitatively coherent black-white tables (Types 3 and 4) made decision-making easier than the quantitatively coherent ones (Types 1 and 2). [Result 2] Among the two qualitatively coherent types, the “black is better” tables (Type 3) made decision making easier; in fact, the participants focused on the more important (black) cells in the case of “black is better” tables (Type 3) while they did not focus enough on the more important (white) ones in the case of the “white is better” tables (Type 4). We also examined some measures of eye movement patterns and showed that these measures supported our hypotheses. The data showed differences in the eye movement patterns between the first and second halves of each trial, which indicated the phased or combined decision strategies taken by the participants.

On Effects of Changing Multi-attribute Table Design on Decision Making: An Eye-Tracking Study

“…(Ease of utilitybased decision making was suggested for the dominance table class of graphic tables, while this was not the case for the non-dominance tables, as we reported in 3.2). In [13], we used only color graphic tables in which both qualitatively-coherent color tables (i.e., smaller value, say, of price is black for the black-better table) and quantitativelycoherent color tables (i.e., small value of price is white, because of smallness, for the black-bigger table), and we found participants' tendency of two-stage strategy with the stimuli of both tables. On the other hand, in the experiments of this paper, we used the qualitatively-coherent color tables, and we found a single strategy, which suggests different ways of designing among the same black-and-white framework change decision makers' strategy.…”

“…This is partly because we use black for representing the better in Fig. 1-3 values out of the two values coherently, which makes the utility-based normative decision easy; this is suggested partly from our former work [13], and partly from former work on purely cognitive tasks [12].…”

“…A cognitive experiment comparing two levels of values in a black-and-white display and in a textual display was conducted by Shimojima and Katagiri [12], where the two levels were binary (i.e., true and false) and the tasks were limited to cognitive tasks. Morii et al [13] introduced graphical representation in multi-attribute decision-making research by showing attribute values in black-and-white squares only, based on the work of Shimojima and Katagiri [12]. In [13] their black-and-white attribute tables, the values of attributes were also limited to two (with a certain threshold for each attribute) and each cell of the table was colored either black or white on a white background.…”

“…Morii et al [13] introduced graphical representation in multi-attribute decision-making research by showing attribute values in black-and-white squares only, based on the work of Shimojima and Katagiri [12]. In [13] their black-and-white attribute tables, the values of attributes were also limited to two (with a certain threshold for each attribute) and each cell of the table was colored either black or white on a white background. They compared two methods of systematic color assignment: "quantitatively-coherent" and "qualitatively-coherent".…”