Deck 7: Working With Charts and Visualizations

Question 1

What does the term "viz" refer to?

A) a classic chart or graph
B) a user-friendly chart
C) a panel of charts
D) line and bar charts

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is a focused chart?

A) shows one aspect of a topic
B) employs bells and whistles
C) presents the topic settings
D) illustrates the "what" of a concept

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What does the term "well organized chart" mean?

A) chart organized in ordinal order
B) graph layout in alphabetical order
C) content consistent with a take-home point
D) chart organized as per rank of objectives

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to the Cleveland McGill (1984) study, people best assess values in charts in which of the following ascending orders?

A) lines, direction, dots, angle, area, volume, curve, shading
B) dots, lines, direction, angle, area, volume, curve, shading
C) area, curve, volume, shading, dots, lines, direction, angle
D) lines, dots, angle, direction, volume, curve, shading, area

Question 5

What does "cognitive load" mean in the context of interpreting a chart or visualization?

A) the complexity of chart type and size
B) number of colors used in a chart
C) data shown with multiple chart types
D) effort required to interpret data in a chart

Question 6

A line chart shows average rainfall per month for 10 countries in Europe. The X-axis shows 12 months of the year 2020, and the Y-axis shows average rainfall per month. Each country is shown with its own line with a unique marker for the 12 data points. The data value to three decimal places is shown above each marker. How would you rate the cognitive load of this chart?

A) moderate
B) low
C) high
D) negligible

Question 7

What is a gestalt reaction?

A) a timely reaction
B) a physical or bodily reaction
C) an instant and subconscious reaction
D) a delayed and physical reaction

Question 8

What is the gestalt principle of connection in the context of charts?

A) Objects of the same shape are from the same group.
B) Data points connected by a line are closely related.
C) Incomplete shapes are mentally completed to a whole.
D) Dots within a shape are connected to each other.

Question 9

Which of the primary gestalt principles refer to the reader mentally filling in an absent connection or a gap?

A) connection principle
B) similarity and connection
C) continuity and closure
D) enclosure principle

Question 10

A bar chart shows the gross annual revenue, by year, of a Telecommunications company. Horizontal bars are shown for each of the four regions the company operates in, for the years 2019 and 2020. Year is shown on the X-axis of the chart. Bars of each region is given a separate color. Which gestalt principle helps the reader in interpreting this bar chart?

A) similarity
B) connection
C) closure
D) continuity

Question 11

The title of a chart states the main take-home point of a particular trend shown in the chart. Where would this title be the most appropriate?

A) a scientific journal
B) a research white paper
C) an applied research journal
D) a newspaper article

Question 12

What is the difference between a legend and a text label?

A) Legend identifies unlabeled series in the chart body. Text label does not.
B) Text label gives a text description of an object. Legend does not.
C) Legend is placed at the bottom of a chart object. Text label is not so placed.
D) Text label uses acronyms to mark series in the chart. Legend does not.

Question 13

A well-designed chart will state the topic and context of the data shown, give the categories and/or measurement units of all variables, and, which other principal characteristic? Choose from the following.

A) provide an advanced visualization of the data
B) enable the reader to easily discern the patterns in data
C) specify the w's of the topic in the title or footnote
D) state the purpose of the exhibit in a footnote or text box

Question 14

A pie chart shows the frequency count of customers of a store for the year, by two age intervals. One age interval contains 65% of the data. The other age interval is not labeled in the chart. What could be the primary purpose of this exhibit?

A) exhibit frequency counts by age-group
B) provide a distribution by category
C) show the relative importance of a number
D) illustrate parts of a whole for a variable

Question 15

What is an icon array? Choose the best answer.

A) rows of vectors containing different icons or shapes
B) histogram of an integer variable
C) small circle equivalent to one case repeated in rows
D) image representing fixed cases and repeated in a grid

Question 16

Which type of chart(s) are best suited for exhibiting "parts-of-a-whole" of a categorical variable?

A) histogram or bar chart
B) stacked bar chart or pie chart
C) doughnut chart
D) spline chart

Question 17

For variables with more than two categories, pie charts are appropriate when all categories are of equal size, or, under which other situation?

A) One category is much larger than the others.
B) There are more than five categories.
C) Two or three categories are much smaller than others.
D) The variable of interest is nominal.

Question 18

How should stacks of a stacked bar chart be organized to reduce cognitive load?

A) descending frequency or percent
B) in order of data source
C) thematically or empirically
D) rank of categories in variable

Question 19

Bar charts are generally perceived by readers to be a comparison of which items?

A) outcome and categories of a variable
B) groups within an independent variable
C) two independent variables
D) variable across time dimension

Question 20

Under what circumstance is a lollipop chart generally used?

A) Outcome variable has many values.
B) There are multiple independent variables.
C) Independent variable has many categories.
D) Dependent variable is dichotomous.

Question 21

The average temperature of the month of July in Los Angeles is plotted on the Y-axis of a chart against the years 1990 to 2000 shown on the X-axis. The data points are connected by a line. What term best represents this type of chart?

A) trend chart
B) line chart
C) spline chart
D) scatterplot

Question 22

Scatter charts are useful for showing association between which two types of variables?

A) categorical and continuous variables
B) two ordinal variables
C) two continuous variables
D) nominal and ordinal variables

Question 23

A scatter chart or plot could include what type of line to show any pattern in the data?

A) trend line
B) regression line
C) spline
D) dotted line

Question 24

The average height of male adults for five time points are shown for Scandinavian countries as a whole, and for Norway, Sweden, and Finland individually. The time points or years, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, are shown on the X-axis. The average height for each time point or year is shown on the Y-axis for each of the four groups: Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, and, Finland. The data points for each group are connected by a line. What type of a chart is this?

A) line chart
B) trend chart
C) multigroup chart
D) multiple-line chart

Question 25

When is it convenient to use a logarithmic scale for values shown on the Y-axis of a dependent variable?

A) All values are very large.
B) All values are very small.
C) Range of values is very large.
D) 25th percentile value is very small.

Question 26

Charts displaying volume, curves, and with shading tend to have more cognitive load.

Question 27

Proximity and enclosure are gestalt principles which are more relevant to designing tables.

Question 28

In classic charts, numeric or text labels are sometimes used in lieu of formal axis titles and labels.

Question 29

Footnotes to a visualization could be used to state the Ws of the research topic.

Question 30

A text visualization does not contain axes, dots or lines, and, could be used to present a dichotomous variable.

Question 31

A clustered-bar chart is generally used to show a bi-variate association.

Question 32

Dumbbell dot plots could be used to portray the association between a dependent variable and two quantitative independent variables.

Question 33

Heat maps exhibit the association of a continuous outcome variable with two categorical independent variables.

Question 34

Values shown on an X-axis should include all possible values of the variable, not a truncated range of values for that variable.

Question 35

A trend chart had the variable YEAR on the X-axis. Values for the variable YEAR were 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010, and, 2015. The tick marks on the axis should be spaced equally to reflect the true slope of the trend line.

Question 36

What are some of the drawbacks of developing a 3-D chart showing two dimensions or variables?

Question 37

In your own words, discuss the key components of a focused and self-contained chart.

Question 38

Provide an example to illustrate the gestalt principle of continuity in a chart of your choice.

Question 39

Text labels could be used in place of a legend in a visualization. Give an example and explain how this reduces cognitive load.

Question 40

A line chart showing the association between two numerical variables, has 15 data points. How would you place data labels, if at all, on this chart? Explain your answer.

Question 41

Describe the different chart types available to present one number on a chart or visualization. Provide an example of one of these chart types.

Question 42

Which type of research task could be exhibited by a pie chart? Discuss the components and characteristics of a well-conceived pie chart.

Question 43

Give an example of a task where a lollipop chart would be preferred over a simple bar chart. Explain your reasons for this choice.

Question 44

Discuss the characteristics of two chart types that show a three-way association. Provide an example of each type.

Question 45

Which colors would you prefer to use, if any, for a chart that needs to be printed in grayscale? Explain your answer.

Question 46

The type of chart or visualization is dependent on the number of variables involved in the research task, and, on their levels(s) of measurement. Do you agree with this statement? If so, give your reasoning with examples. If you do not agree, state your objections to this statement.

Question 47

Construct a research task of your choice from a real-world situation that has a dichotomous dependent or outcome variable, and two categorical independent variables. What type of chart would best represent the data from this task? Illustrate your reasoning by developing different charts with the data you constructed. Your reasoning should make it clear, which is the best chart type and why.

Question 48

How would you convert the chart you constructed in Question 2 to a visualization? Explain the steps you take to make this conversion. Show the end result of this conversion in your answer.