We are working with Dr. Cynthia Parr to study how students and researchers view and think about phylogenetic trees, especially using the tool that she and her colleagues have developed, TaxonTree.

Examples of different tree representations:

For example, how does a particular tree visualization affect one's ability to draw inferences?  We administered a quiz to students at UMBC as our first exploration of this question.  The quiz will soon be made available here for our visitors to take.

Future work will address related questions:

• How hard is it to compare two tree topologies if they have one representation style or another?
• How long does it take people to mentally rotate the information to determine if two trees shown in different representations are the same topology?

Our results will provide information on the "cognitive load" posed by different tree representations, measurements of value both to the evolutionary biology community and also to the field of information visualization in general.

We are supported by the National Science Foundation CAREER DEB-0347083. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Last updated: 02/01/05.