What Biological Visualizations Do Science Center Visitors Prefer in an Interactive Touch Table?

Höst, Gunnar; Schönborn, Konrad J.; Fröcklin, Henry; Tibell, Lena

doi:10.3390/educsci8040166

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…A value of 1 indicated that an image was always selected, irrespective of what other image it was combined with, while a value of 0 would show that the image was never selected. To compare how the scores and the resulting ranking of images related to each other and to findings from usage statistics from the Microcosmos exhibit, Spearman's rank correlation was calculated between the scores for image preference, perceived realism, desire to explore, and relative ranking of the individual images based on data from a previous study (Höst et al, 2018). Screenshot of the data collection interface, with one example of a pair of images taken from the Microcosmos exhibit (Höst et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To compare how the scores and the resulting ranking of images related to each other and to findings from usage statistics from the Microcosmos exhibit, Spearman's rank correlation was calculated between the scores for image preference, perceived realism, desire to explore, and relative ranking of the individual images based on data from a previous study (Höst et al, 2018). Screenshot of the data collection interface, with one example of a pair of images taken from the Microcosmos exhibit (Höst et al, 2018). In this example, participants are asked to indicate which image they would like to explore further, as an indication of their interaction intention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a preceding study (Höst et al, 2018), we proposed that the tendency of science center visitors to interact with certain types of images could be partly explained by construal level theory (e.g., Trope and Liberman, 2010). According to construal level theory, people engage differently with objects depending on the psychological distance between the object and the individual.…”

Section: Level Of Construal In Scientific Visual Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An influential aspect of interpreting a biological image is realism, a term that refers to the accurate mapping between the visual representation and reality. Recently, the use of realistic images for conveying scientific content has gained even more traction with the advent of visualization technology such as virtual reality (e.g., , and the exposure of the public to biological visuals in museums and science centers (e.g., Höst et al, 2018). This trend is also vividly apparent in current society, with citizens negotiating and perceiving the wave of biological visual communication in the wake of COVID-19, where biological imagery is a core component in shaping the narrative of the pandemic (e.g., Callender et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual images of the biological microcosmos: Viewers’ perception of realism, preference, and desire to explore

2022

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Visual images are crucial for communicating science in educational contexts and amongst practitioners. Reading images contributes to meaning-making in society at large, and images are fundamental communicative tools in public spaces such as science centers. Here, visitors are exposed to a range of static, dynamic, and digital visual representations accessible through various multimodal and interactive possibilities. Images conveying scientific phenomena differ to what extent they represent real objects, and include photographs, schematic illustrations, and measurement-based models. Depicting realism in biological objects, structures and processes through images differs with respect to, inter alia, shading, color, and surface texture. Although research has shown that aspects of these properties can both potentially benefit and impair interpretation, little is known about their impact on viewers’ visual preference and inclination for further exploration. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate what effect visual properties have on visitors’ perception of biological images integrated in an interactive science center exhibit. Visitors responded to a questionnaire designed to assess the impact of three indicators of realism (shading, color, and surface texture) and biological content (e.g., cells and viruses) on participants’ preferences, perceptions of whether biological images depicted real objects, and their desire to further explore images. Inspired by discrete choice experiments, image pairs were systematically varied to allow participants to make direct choices between images with different properties. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that the three indicators of realism were all significant predictors of participants’ assessments that images depict real objects. Shadows emerged as a significant predictor of preference for further exploration together with the presence of cells in the image. Correlation analysis indicated that images that were more often selected as depicting real objects were also more often selected for further exploration. We interpret the results in terms of construal level theory in that a biological image perceived as a realistic portrayal would induce a desire for further exploration. The findings have implications for considering the role of realism and preference in the design of images for communicating science in public spaces.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Level Of Construal In Scientific Visual Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual images of the biological microcosmos: Viewers’ perception of realism, preference, and desire to explore

2022

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“…Visitors can interact directly with the visualizations, they can perform single and multi touch gestures, e.g, rotate the volume or cut through it, but they cannot select objects very precisely. Similar setups are used to explore a virtual human mummy [YRA*16] and biological structures that would not be visible to the naked eye [HSFT18]. However, besides pre-defined transfer functions, textual descriptions, and videos no further guidance through the complex data is provided.…”

Section: Selected Examples Of Narrative Scientific Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Narrative Medical Visualization

Meuschke¹,

Garrison²,

Smit³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Narrative visualization aims to communicate scientific results to a general audience and garners significant attention in various applications. Merging exploratory and explanatory visualization could effectively support non-expert understanding of scientific processes. Medical research results, e.g., mechanisms of the healthy human body, explanations of pathological processes, or avoidable risk factors for diseases, are also interesting to a general audience that includes patients and their relatives. This paper discusses how narrative techniques can be applied to medical visualization to tell data-driven stories about diseases. We address the general public comprising people interested in medicine without specific medical background knowledge. We derived a general template for the narrative medical visualization of diseases. Applying this template to three diseases selected to span bone, vascular, and organ system, we discuss how narrative techniques can support visual communication and facilitate understanding of medical data. Other scientists can adapt our proposed template to inform an audience on other diseases. With our work, we show the potential of narrative medical visualization and conclude with a comprehensive research agenda. CCS Concepts• Applied computing → Life and medical sciences; • Human-centered computing → Visualization;

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