Effects of Display Proximity and Memory Demands on the Understanding of Dynamic Multidimensional Information

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Abstract
Two experiments explored the ability of individuals to integrate several sources of information about units or conceptual objects. The task domain might describe the air traffic controller's monitoring of the horizontal and vertical separation of several aircraft, the process controller's supervision of the temperature, pressure, and entropy of several energy systems, or any other multidimensional database. The first experiment examined working memory limits for different object-attribute combinations. When subjects monitored a display with a smaller number of objects with more attributes, responses were slower but significantly more accurate than for a larger number of objects with few attributes. In the second experiment, interest centered on how variations of proximity affect the detection of events that occur within a multidimensional database. Results showed that the use of color and spatial position to define proximity facilitated information integration and thereby event detection.

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