Abstract
Psychological research indicates that the provision of feedback is a key element in reinforcing and/or changing behavior, and whilst results from empirical studies on eco-feedback are positive, variation in findings suggests that its effectiveness may depend on both what information is provided and how it is presented. The design of graphical displays is an important component, but past display research has been primarily qualitative and exploratory. This paper introduces and tests a cognitive model of visual information processing applied to eco-feedback to evaluate differences in interpretation and preference between images. Participants were shown images that varied by number of data points as well as display features and were asked to interpret the images and report on image usability. Findings support the cognitive model, suggesting that eco-feedback displays appear to be more successful when they: (1) contain fewer data points; (2) employ data chunking; and/or (3) include pictures.