Graph use in psychology and other sciences

Since the early 19th century, graphs have been recognised as an effective method of analysing and representing scientific data. However, levels of graph use have varied widely since then, partly due to increasing reliance on inferential statistics in some fields. Recent studies indicate that graph u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural processes 2001-05, Vol.54 (1), p.155-165
Main Authors: Best, Lisa A., Smith, Laurence D., Stubbs, D.Alan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Graphs
Hard science
Playfair
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics. Statistics. Methodology
Soft science
Statistics
Statistics. Mathematics
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Summary:Since the early 19th century, graphs have been recognised as an effective method of analysing and representing scientific data. However, levels of graph use have varied widely since then, partly due to increasing reliance on inferential statistics in some fields. Recent studies indicate that graph use is closely related to the ‘hardness’ of scientific disciplines, and that this finding holds for journal articles and textbooks across the subfields of psychology. In the area of animal behaviour, journals devote about one-sixth of their page space to graphs, a level of graph use approximating that of biology and physics. Implications for the training of scientists in the use of visual displays are considered.
ISSN:0376-6357
1872-8308
DOI:10.1016/S0376-6357(01)00156-5