The misinterpretation of histograms

Histograms are frequently used in statistics and mathe-matics education and in reporting statistical data. Recent studies have however shown that students often have difficulty interpreting these representations of data distributions. In this study we analyzed reaction times and accuracy rates in order to investigate whether intuitive reasoning based on salient features of the histogram might underlie one specific difficulty in students who compare the means of two histograms. We found evidence for the occurrence of intuitive reasoning, both in the patterns of accuracy rates and in reaction times. We conclude that the salient height of the modal bar in histograms leads students to the incorrect interpretation of these representations.status: publishe