Visual Decoding Operators: Towards a Compositional Theory of Visualization Perception
arXiv:2604.02220v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Prior work on perceptual effectiveness has decomposed visualizations into smaller common units (e.g., channels such as angle, position, and length) to establish rankings. While useful, these decompositions lack the computational structure to predict performance for new visualization $\times$ task combinations, requiring new experiments for each. We propose an alternative unit of analysis: operationalizing quantitative visualization interpretation as sequences of composable visual decoding operators. Using probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) charts, we examine how chart-specific tasks can be decomposed into reusable, chart-agnostic perceptual operations and characterize their error profiles through hie
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Abstract:Prior work on perceptual effectiveness has decomposed visualizations into smaller common units (e.g., channels such as angle, position, and length) to establish rankings. While useful, these decompositions lack the computational structure to predict performance for new visualization $\times$ task combinations, requiring new experiments for each. We propose an alternative unit of analysis: operationalizing quantitative visualization interpretation as sequences of composable visual decoding operators. Using probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) charts, we examine how chart-specific tasks can be decomposed into reusable, chart-agnostic perceptual operations and characterize their error profiles through hierarchical Bayesian modeling. We then test generalizability by composing learned operators to predict performance on a structurally different task: Moritz et al.'s [35] scatterplot mean-estimation experiment, where the chart type, chart dimensions, and analytic goal all differ from the learning conditions. With a pre-registered analysis plan, we compose operators under six candidate strategies and evaluate each against empirical data with no parameters fit to the response data. One strategy captures both bias and variance of observed responses; five alternatives fail in distinguishable ways. We argue that this decoding-operator-oriented approach to empirical visualization research and theory-building lays the groundwork for generative models that can predict a distribution of likely interpretations under different viewing conditions, new chart types, and new tasks. Free copy of this paper and supplemental materials: this https URL experiment interface: this https URL.
Subjects:
Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
Cite as: arXiv:2604.02220 [cs.HC]
(or arXiv:2604.02220v1 [cs.HC] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.02220
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Submission history
From: Sheng Long [view email] [v1] Thu, 2 Apr 2026 16:11:53 UTC (14,784 KB)
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