How do people internalize visualizations: as images or information? In this study, we investigate the nature of internalization for visualizations (i.e., how the mind encodes visualizations in memory) and how memory encoding affects its retrieval. This exploratory work examines the influence of various design elements on a user's perception of a chart. Specifically, which design elements lead to perceptions of visualization as an image or as information? Understanding how design elements contribute to viewers perceiving a visualization more as an image or information will help designers decide which elements to include to achieve their communication goals. For this study, we annotated 500 visualizations and analyzed the responses of 250 online participants, who rated the visualizations on a bilinear scale as image or information. We then conducted an in-person study (n = 101) using a free recall task to examine how the image/information ratings and design elements impact memory. The results revealed several interesting findings: Image-rated visualizations were perceived as more aesthetically appealing, enjoyable, and pleasing. Information-rated visualizations were perceived as less difficult to understand and more aesthetically likable and nice, though participants expressed higher positive sentiment when viewing image-rated visualizations and felt less guided to a conclusion. We also found different patterns among participants that were older. Importantly, we show that visualizations internalized as images are less effective in conveying trends and messages, though they elicit a more positive emotional judgment, while informative visualizations exhibit annotation focused recall and elicit a more positive design judgment. We discuss the implications of this dissociation between aesthetic pleasure and perceived ease of use in visualization design.

翻译：人们是如何内化可视化内容的：是将其视为图像还是信息？在本研究中，我们探讨了可视化内化的本质（即大脑如何在记忆中编码可视化内容），以及记忆编码如何影响信息检索。这项探索性工作考察了各种设计元素对用户图表感知的影响。具体而言，哪些设计元素会导致将可视化感知为图像或信息？理解设计元素如何促使观众更多地将可视化视为图像或信息，将有助于设计师决定采用哪些元素以实现其传播目标。在本研究中，我们标注了500个可视化作品，并分析了250名在线参与者的反馈，这些参与者使用双线性量表将可视化评为“图像”或“信息”。随后，我们进行了一项线下研究（样本量为101人），采用自由回忆任务来考察图像/信息评分以及设计元素如何影响记忆。结果揭示了几个有趣的发现：被评为“图像”的可视化被认为更具美学吸引力、更令人愉悦和更讨喜。被评为“信息”的可视化被认为更易于理解，在美学上更受欢迎且更令人舒适，尽管参与者观看被评为“图像”的可视化时表达了更积极的情绪，并且感觉结论引导性较弱。我们还发现年长参与者中存在不同的模式。重要的是，我们表明，被内化为图像的可视化在传达趋势和信息方面效果较差，尽管它们能引发更积极的情绪评价；而信息型可视化则表现出以标注为中心的回忆，并引发更积极的设计评价。我们讨论了美学愉悦感与感知易用性之间这种分离对可视化设计的影响。