Affiliations: [a] Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A. | [b] Department of Social Systems Sciences and Operations Research, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.
Note: [*] The authors wish to acknowledge the useful suggestions made by the referees.
Abstract: Using elements from the human information processing frameworks proposed by Kochen, and Simon and Newell, environmental complexity and individual differences were examined in a laboratory experiment where individuals were required to abstract specific information as well as to perceive complex relationships among the information over time. Environmental complexity was induced by modifying the report formats and increasing the amount of information provided to decision makers. Individual differences were measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. The results of the study were that (1) the subjects indicated a strong preference for the information representation they used initially even after having seen and understood or used an alternative representation, (2) after an increase in information or an increase in information and a change in representation an initial deterioration in performance resulted, (3) the popular notion that graphics are catagorically superior to tables is not supported either by the literature or this study, and (4) individual differences did not account for performance differences.
Keywords: Decision support systems, representational change, information change
