Evidence for Area as the Primary Visual Cue in Pie Charts

The long-standing assumption of angle as the primary visual cue used to read pie charts has recently been called into question.
We conducted a controlled, preregistered study using parallel-projected 3D~pie charts. Angle, area, and arc length differ dramatically when projected and change over a large range of values. Modeling these changes and comparing them to study participants' estimates allows us to rank the different visual cues by model fit. Area emerges as the most likely cue used to read pie charts.

This repository contains the pre-registration, materials, and write-up of the study.

长久以来，角度作为读取饼状图时首要的视觉线索的假设近期遭到了质疑。我们进行了一项受控的、预先注册的研究，使用了平行投影的3D饼状图。当进行投影时，角度、面积和弧长差异显著，且随值的范围广泛变化。通过模拟这些变化并将之与研究参与者的估计进行比较，我们能够根据模型拟合度对不同的视觉线索进行排序。面积被视为读取饼状图时最有可能使用的线索。本仓库包含了研究的预先注册信息、材料以及研究报告。