Title
What Makes an Effective Representation of Information: A Formal Account of Observational Advantages.
Abstract
In order to effectively communicate information, the choice of representation is important. Ideally, a chosen representation will aid readers in making desired inferences. In this paper, we develop the theory of observation: what it means for one statement to be observable from another. Using observability, we give a formal characterization of the observational advantages of one representation of information over another. By considering observational advantages, people will be able to make better informed choices of representations of information. To demonstrate the benefit of observation and observational advantages, we apply these concepts to set theory and Euler diagrams. In particular, we can show that Euler diagrams have significant observational advantages over set theory. This formally justifies Larkin and Simon's claim that \"a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words\".
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1007/s10849-017-9250-6
Journal of Logic, Language and Information
Keywords
Field
DocType
Observation,Free rides,Inference,Euler diagrams,Set theory
Set theory,Observability,Observational study,Observable,Inference,Computer science,Euler diagram,Diagram,Artificial intelligence,Natural language processing,Calculus
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
26
2
0925-8531
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.36
9
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gem Stapleton148256.25
Mateja Jamnik215830.79
Atsushi Shimojima39117.13