Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How do you make sense of an unconventional graph? Buildingon research demonstrating that prior knowledge of graphicalconventions is difficult to overcome, we reconstrue graphreading as an insight problem. We hypothesize that imposing amental impasse during a particular type of graph reading taskwill improve comprehension by inducing a sense ofpuzzlement, prompting learners to reconsider theirinterpretation. We find support for this proposal in a between-subjects experiment in which participants presented with animpasse-formulated version of graph reading questions aresignificantly more likely to correctly interpret a graph featuringan unconventional coordinate system. We characterize thedifferential patterns of mouse movements for learners betweenconditions and discuss implications for the use of novelgraphical forms in science communication.