To Örebro University

Evolutionary history is embedded in the deep and imperceptible past with traces left in fossils and in the genetic makeup of living organisms. Deep Evolutionary Time (DET) – the time living organisms have existed – is a demanding topic for students and the general public. Visual communication through various static, dynamic, interactive, and immersive visualisation forms is pivotal for interpreting and learning about DET and its implications. Nevertheless, both challenges and opportunities are associated with the interpretation of visualised DET. This review paper illuminates how visualisation of DET has developed, its integration in biology education and outreach, and potential future research avenues concerning visualised DET. We first show that the communication of DET has developed from views of a very young Earth to scientifically grounded concepts, with visual representations like ladders, timelines, tree diagrams, and palaeoimagery significantly shaping perceptions of evolution. We then synthesise research on interpreting DET visual representations, addressing static, animated and interactive forms, palaeoimagery, currently available digital interfaces, and the benefits of combining multiple representations in biology education and outreach. We close by advocating for integrating a historical perspective, critical visual literacy, and emerging interactive visualisations in communicating DET in formal and informal biology education.

We investigate visitor interactions with, and responses to, EcoWebWater, a touch-based exhibit visualizing a 3D Antarctic food web. The aim is to gain knowledge about how public science center visitors engage with an interactive visualization about ecological relationships. The study employed a mixed-methods design using quantitative data from 995 visitor sessions logged at a science center, complemented by qualitative insights obtained through semi-structured interviews with five participants. The analysis focused on session durations, user behaviors, the nature of engagement, and responses to the exhibit. The quantitative analysis revealed patterns of engagement, categorizing session durations into short (<30 seconds), medium (30 seconds to 5 minutes), and long (>5 minutes) sessions. Longer sessions were characterised by exploratory behaviors, including increased page visits and food web interactions per session, while shorter sessions exhibited lower levels of engagement. The average session time was approximately two minutes, consistent with existing research on similar exhibits. Qualitatively, visitors demonstrated scientific reasoning, with interpretations ranging from correct to hybrid or incorrect. The exhibit also elicited a range of affective responses, e.g., curiosity and anxiety. However, user feedback indicated challenges with the 3D format, node density, and cognitive demands, which at times impeded usability and visual communication. This study provides new insights into public engagement with complex science visualizations, highlighting the importance of design considerations in enhancing accessibility and sustained interaction. The findings suggest potential design improvements to address identified challenges. Future research directions include exploring strategies to optimise user experience and increase engagement with interactive science center exhibits.

Despite the importance of emotions in science education, research on affect remains sparse. A promising direction is to explore the role of immersive visualisation in evoking affective responses. We investigate whether touch-based zooming interaction with a tabletop visualisation of the tree of life evokes various affective responses, particularly, the epistemic affective responses of awe, curiosity, surprise, and confusion. Ten students participated in semi-structured interviews while interacting with the visualisation. Verbal utterances and interactions with the visual interface were videorecorded. Students' verbal and non-verbal affective responses in relation to five evolutionary themes were analysed. Results revealed that students expressed all four affective responses while engaging the zooming feature, with awe and surprise most frequently uttered. Most affective responses were associated with the themes of biological relationships and evolutionary time. Awe was highly associated with evolutionary time, surprise with biological relationships, and confusion with both these conceptual themes. For eight participants, awe was the initial affective response generated after exposure to the dynamic tree of life. The study demonstrates that interacting with an immersive visualisation through zooming can induce affective responses in relation to multiple conceptual themes in evolution. The findings provide insight into multidirectional interconnections between affect, dynamic visualisation, and biology concepts.

The immense time scales involved in Deep evolutionary time (DET) is a threshold concept in biology and interpreting temporal aspects of DET is demanding. DET is communicated through various visualizations that include static two-dimensional representations, low interactivity animations, as well as high interactivity interfaces. Given the importance of DET as fundamental scientific knowledge of potential societal application, there is a need for educational research on students’ interpretation of visually communicated DET. This thesis explores students’ interpretation of different forms of visualized DET along a continuum of interactivity. The research aim is four-fold, and probes how students interpret DET visualizations in terms of temporal aspects, communicated evolutionary concepts, degree of visualization interactivity, and generated affective responses.

The work comprises four studies, which as a collective, adopt exploratory and multi-method designs. A total of 505 students participated. Data were collected from questionnaires, task-based questions, and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was qualitative and quantitative, and incorporated deductive and inductive approaches.  

In analysing students' interpretation of static two-dimensional DET visualizations, an instrument for measuring knowledge about the visual representation of deep evolutionary time (DET-Vis) was developed. Emergence of a unidimensional construct during validation represents knowledge about the visual communication of DET. Inspection of item performance suggests that interpreting visualized DET requires both procedural and declarative knowledge. Analysis of students’ interpretation of a low interactivity DET animation, communicating hominin evolution revealed five temporal aspects influencing interpretation: events at specific times, relative order, concurrent events, time intervals, and time interval durations. A further shift across the continuum involved analysing students’ interpretation of a high-interactivity DET visualization of a three-dimensional phylogenetic tree. Finger-based zooming was associated with movement within the tree itself, or as movement in time, respectively, and related to identified misinterpretations. Further analysis showed that interpreting DeepTree evoked the epistemic affective responses of awe, curiosity, surprise, and confusion. Affective responses were expressed in relation to five evolutionary conceptual themes, namely biological relationships, evolutionary time, biological diversity, common descent, and biological structure or terminology.   

The thesis findings have implications for teaching, visualization design and future research. Exposing students to various DET visualizations across the continuum could support DET teaching. Visual communication of temporal aspects should be carefully considered in DET visualization design. Future work on relationships between affect, highly interactive visualizations, and evolution concepts will provide further insight for leveraging learning and teaching of DET.   

De väldiga tidsskalor som omfattas av djup evolutionär tid (DET) betraktas som ett tröskelbegrepp inom biologi, och undervisning om DET har visat sig vara utmanande. DET kommuniceras vanligen genom olika typer av visualiseringar, från statiska två-dimensionella representationer, via animationer med viss interaktionsmöjlighet, till användargränssnitt med hög interaktivitet. Givet den stora betydelsen av DET, inte bara inom biologi, är forskning om visuell kommunikation av DET viktig.  

Den här avhandling undersöker hur studenter tolkar olika typer av visualiserad DET längs ett kontinuum från icke-interaktiva statiska bilder till visualiseringar som erbjuder hög grad av interaktivitet. I avhandlingen undersöks hur studenter och elever tolkar visualiseringar av DET med avseende på olika tidsmässiga aspekter, kommunicerade evolutionära begrepp, grad av interaktivitet hos visualiseringen och i vad mån visualiseringen ger upphov till känslomässiga reaktioner.  

Avhandlingen består av fyra delstudier som tillsammans baseras på ett flertal olika metoder. Totalt deltog 505 elever, och studenter. Data insamlades i enkätform, uppgiftsbaserade frågor och semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Dataanalyserna var både av kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär. Vid analysen av studenters tolkningar av statiska två-dimensionella visualiseringar av DET utvecklades ett instrument för att mäta kunskap om visuellt kommunicerad DET. Resultatet av valideringen indikerade en underliggande en-dimensionell dimension som representerar kunskap om visuellt kommunicerad DET.   

På skalan av ökande interaktivitet analyserades en visualisering med begränsade möjligheter till interaktion, i form av en animation rörande homininers evolution. I studien undersöktes hur fem olika aspekter av tid tolkades beroende på hur tidsförloppet gestaltades: specifika tidpunkter, ordning, samtidighet, varaktigheten samt jämförelse av tidsintervall.   

Ytterligare ett steg längre på skalan av interaktivitet analyserades elevers tolkningar av en visualisering av DET i form av ett interaktivt tredimensionellt släktträd. Interaktivitet i form av zoomning i trädet via hand och fingerrörelser uppfattades på två sätt, dels som en rörelse i trädet, dels som en rörelse i tiden. I studien framkom också felaktiga tolkningar. Analysen visade dessutom att det trädet gav upphov till så kallade epistemiska känslomässiga reaktioner, framförallt förundran, förvåning, överraskning och förvirring. Dessa reaktioner uttrycktes i relation till fem evolutionära begrepp; biologiskt släktskap, evolutionär tid, biologisk mångfald, gemensamt ursprung samt biologisk struktur och terminologi.  

Resultaten av avhandling har implikationer för undervisning, design av visualiseringar och framtida forskning. Genom att i undervisning erbjuda elever och studenter visualisering med varierande interaktionsmöjligheter kan kommunikation om DET stärkas. Vid utnyttjande av visualiseringar bör den visuella kommunikationen av olika tidsaspekter av DET övervägas noggrant. Framtida forskning om sambanden mellan känslomässiga reaktioner, visualiseringar med höga interaktionsmöjligheter och evolutionära begrepp kan bidra till ytterligare insikter för att stärka undervisning om DET.    

Understanding deep evolutionary time is crucial for biology education and for conceptualizing evolutionary history. Although such knowledge might help citizens contemplate their actions in the context of human existence, understanding deep evolutionary time is a demanding cognitive endeavor for students. The enormous magnitudes of evolutionary time are often visually communicated through phylograms and timelines. Given the importance of understanding evolutionary time in various scientific domains at large, there is a need for tools to gauge students’ knowledge about visually communicated deep evolutionary time. In response, we describe the design and validation of an instrument to measure knowledge about the visual representation of deep evolutionary time. Development, expert panel evaluation, and piloting of an initial 14 questions with 139 respondents resulted in a 10-item multiple-choice questionnaire. Subsequent collection and analysis of 212 responses validated the 10-item Deep Evolutionary Time Visual Instrument (DET-Vis). Identification of a single factor suggests a unidimensional construct that represents knowledge about the visual communication of deep evolutionary time. A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.73 yielded an acceptable internal consistency of the instrument. The items of the instrument discriminate well with discrimination coefficients between 0.25 and 0.53. The instrument is of moderate difficulty with difficulty indices ranging from 0.56 to 0.81. The seven-step methodological design and validation procedure of this study yielded a unidimensional, valid, and reliable ten-item deep evolutionary time visual test instrument. The instrument items probe both procedural and declarative aspects of the construct that could warrant future psychometric exploration. Use of DET-Vis in pedagogical practice could help support the teaching of deep evolutionary time at upper secondary and undergraduate levels.

Purpose: Representations of time are commonly used to construct narratives in visualisations of data. However, since time is a value-laden concept, and no representation can provide a full, objective account of "temporal reality", they are also biased and political: reproducing and reinforcing certain views and values at the expense of alternative ones. This conceptual paper aims to explore expressions of temporal bias and politics in data visualisation, along with possibly mitigating user approaches and design strategies.

Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a theoretical framework rooted in a sociotechnical view of representations as biased and political, combined with perspectives from critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design. The framework provides a basis for discussion of various types and effects of temporal bias in visualisation. Empirical examples from previous research and public resources illustrate the arguments.

Findings: Four types of political effects of temporal bias in visualisations are presented, expressed as limitation of view, disregard of variation, oppression of social groups and misrepresentation of topic and suggest that appropriate critical and radical literacy approaches require users and designers to critique, contextualise, counter and cross beyond expressions of the same. Supporting critical design strategies involve the inclusion of multiple datasets and representations; broad access to flexible tools; and inclusive participation of marginalised groups.

Originality/value: The paper draws attention to a vital, yet little researched problem of temporal representation in visualisations of data. It offers a pioneering bridging of critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design and emphasises mutual rather than contradictory interests of the empirical sciences and humanities.

Communicating evolutionary theory continues to demonstrate significant challenges. One particularly demanding area is comprehending evolutionary time scales. Furthermore, visual representations such as the Tree of Life usually incorporate temporal aspects but require interpreting the underlying biological concepts as well as the representational features used to convey evolutionary meaning.

In this paper, we investigate how users engage with the DeepTree exhibit, an interactive touch table visualization of a dynamic Tree of Life (Block et al., 2012). The main purpose of DeepTree is to visualize the relationship of all life on earth. Specific focus of this paper is to explore how a zooming interactive feature which enables users to move virtually from the origin of life to present day species, influences perception and understanding of evolutionary time associated with the tree metaphor. The aim of the study is to explore how the zooming feature affords new ways of understanding the information which the dynamic tree metaphor conveys, what properties of zooming interactions are associated with various temporal aspects and how moving in time is perceived.

A video recorded clinical, semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant while s/he interacted with the DeepTree application. The analytical method used to treat the generated data was a combination of deductive and inductive coding of the transcripts and accompanying visual recordings.

The findings suggest that DeepTree is a natural and intuitive touch-based interface for navigating the metaphor of biological relationships. Interacting with the visualization induced various positive affective reactions. However, in its present design, DeepTree may not completely support users' understanding of evolutionary time. The results indicate that zooming can be interpreted in different ways. This suggests that the embodied and immersive experience offered by such interactive tree applications might strongly influence users' temporal interpretations associated with evolution concepts if they are designed appropriately.

Despite the acknowledged importance of emotions and feelings in science education, systematic research concerning affect remains sparse. In this regard, a promising research field is the potential of immersive and/or interactive visualizations to enhance learning by promoting affective responses. In building upon our previous research with an interactive visualization, this study focuses on affective dimensions. The aim of the study is to investigate whether interacting with DeepTree, a dynamic visualization of phylogenetic relationships represented as a tree of life, induces the affective responses of curiosity, surprise, confusion and awe. And if so, to ascertain which features and experiences of interacting with the visualization promotes these affections.

Ten students were each interviewed during a clinical, semi-structured interview while answering questions and performing tasks during interaction with the DeepTree application. Data was collected using a video camera mounted above the tabletop capturing auditory, and visual information. In a synthesis of the literature, we formulated a predetermined affective framework to apply in the analysis of the data set to identify affective responses.

Piloting of the framework during a detailed analysis of three students’ transcripts and corresponding video material, preliminary findings reveal that the most commonly expressed affective response was awe followed by confusion and curiosity, with few utterances or experiences indicating surprise. Most conceptual aspects associated with elicited affective responses included time and the unity of life, and to a lesser extent, relationships between organisms and the diversity of life. A strong elicitor of affective responses was the “zooming” feature of DeepTree. Findings of this pilot study confirm previous research that immersive visualizations can induce and enhance affective responses. Encouragingly, the findings also validate the application of the framework as a systematic tool for identifying affective responses.

The work provides further insight into the potential influence of affect in learning science with visualizations.

Central to evolution is the concept of a common ancestry from which all life has emerged over immense time scales, but learning and teaching temporal aspects of evolution remain challenging. This study investigated students’ interpretation of evolutionary time when engaging with a multi-touch tabletop application called DeepTree, a dynamic visualization of a phylogenetic tree. Specifically, we explored how interactive finger-based zooming (zooming “in” and “out”) influenced students’ interpretation of evolutionary time, and how temporal information and relationships were conceptualized during interaction. Transcript analysis of videotaped interview data from ten secondary school students while they interacted with DeepTree revealed that zooming was interpreted in two ways: as spatially orientated (movement within the tree itself), or as time-orientated (movement in time). Identified misinterpretations included perceiving an implicit coherent timeline along the y-axis of the tree, that the zooming time duration in the virtual tree was linearly correlated to real time, and that more branch nodes correspond to a longer time. Sources for erroneous interpretations may lie in transferring everyday sensory experiences (e.g., physical movements and observing tree growth) to understanding abstract evolution concepts. Apart from estimating the occurrence of dinosaurs, DeepTree was associated with an improvement in interpretation of relative order of evolutionary events. Although highly promising, zooming interaction in DeepTree does not facilitate an intuitive understanding of evolutionary time. However, the opportunity to combine visual and bodily action in emerging technologies such as Deep Tree suggests a high pedagogical potential of further development of zooming features for optimal scientific understanding.