First understand the context and then look at the graph - the effect of attentional guidance on cognitive linear graph processing?

Purpose: Many studies have investigated the effect of signaling on graph processing, but not the effect of a question's timing as attentional guidance (AG). We investigated how the AG, task level, and visual load affect graph processing, among university students.

Design: We developed a graph processing task. The AG process created by displaying the question before the graph was displayed. We used behavioral measures and observation duration of eye movements to evaluate graph processing.

Findings: AG has more significant impact on graph processing than the cognitive load of the graph. This means that understanding the context before looking at the graph is important to graph processing. In addition, AG influencing was seen mainly in process duration, rather than on decision-making accuracy.

Originality: The results have important implications both for teachers and students how to develop interpretations of visual information into CONCLUSIONS: These results are discussed broadly in the article.