The Role of Cognitive Modeling in an Automated System for Understanding Bar Charts?

Abstract. Information graphics (such as line graphs, bar charts, and pie charts) are an inherently visual medium which relies on a viewer’s spatial reasoning abilities to facilitate the comprehension of complex data. Our research group has developed an automated system for understanding the intended message of simple bar charts, and we are currently work-ing to expand this system to handle more complex types of information graphics. A key component of our system is a cognitive model for esti-mating the effort required to perform various tasks within a given infor-mation graphic. This novel application of cognitive modeling (including spatial reasoning) within an artificial intelligence framework represents a promising example of the potential synergy between these fields.