AN ACCOUNT OF HOW READERS SEARCH FOR INFORMATION IN DIAGRAMS

Research has provided less information about how readers search for information in diagrams than it has about searching in text. For this reason, Guthrie′s (1988) model of search in text is taken as the starting point for an account of how readers search for information in diagrams. The major difference between search in text and search in diagrams is that, in the case of diagrams, the initial stages of search are guided perceptually. The nature of discriminated symbols and the way they are configured are meaningful to the reader, guiding subsequent search. The symbol systems and conventions of diagrams are primarily spatial and these are powerful factors in directing search. Perhaps most powerful, however, is a reader′s knowledge of the content the diagram describes, since this lets the reader anticipate what to look for next, and in some cases even where to look for it. The interaction of diagrams′ conventions, readers′ knowledge, and the goals of search defines search strategies whose successful application leads the reader to meet search goals and to encode and recall information to which the search leads. The article concludes with an account of search in diagrams that summarizes these ideas. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.