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Record W4407702610 · doi:10.1037/xlm0001454

Anchors and ratios to quantify and explain y-axis distortion effects in graphs.

2025· article· en· W4407702610 on OpenAlexaff
Shuo Zang, Denis Cousineau

Bibliographic record

VenueJournal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldComputer Science
TopicAdvanced Graph Neural Networks
Canadian institutionsUniversity of Ottawa
Fundersnot available
KeywordsPsychologyDistortion (music)Cognitive psychologyPhysics

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

, information that can be perceived from a graph, to explain ratings of differences in bar graphs. Study 1 examined whether the upper y-axis truncation effect exists or not. We confirmed its existence even though the effect size is smaller compared to lower y-axis truncation effect. Study 2 examined lower and upper y-axis truncations and expansions. We found that, compared to graphs without distortions, observers perceive larger differences between values when there is truncation and smaller differences when there is expansion at either end of the y-axis. Study 3 examined whether the effects of lower and upper y-axis distortions are also present on reversed bar graphs. We found that the black bars biased observers more when they are truncated, as it reduces their area. Finally, Study 4 examined the impact of y-axis distortions on bar graphs, dot graphs, and line graphs. We found that a plot not showing bars results in less biased judgments in the presence of truncation and similar biases for lower and upper truncation. We discuss the results of other relevant research using these anchors and argue that characterizing graphs using the anchors proposed herein can be generalized to other data visualizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.006
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.091
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: none
Teacher disagreement score0.017
Threshold uncertainty score0.058

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0060.091
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.001
Bibliometrics0.0030.003
Science and technology studies0.0000.001
Scholarly communication0.0020.006
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0170.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.012
GPT teacher head0.321
Teacher spread0.309 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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