Towards Integrated Mental Models of Cultural Heritage Data

Web-based databases of museums and cultural institutions collections enable fast access to important cultural assets for everyone: Millions of paintings, sculptures, music, and artworks can be reached with only a few clicks. Current research shows that interested visitors like to explore digital collections - often without a concrete goal. They like their observations to add up and make sense and to learn something new. Traditional websites focus on professional users, hence often knowledge of cultural history or the structures of the database are needed to effectively navigate the enormous amount of data. Diagrams and visual overviews can highly improve the accessibility to these collections. In the project Towards Integrated Mental Models of Cultural Heritage Data one particular method of visualization will be investigated and further developed: the space-time cube (STC) displays spatial distributions as well as the temporal developments in a combined view. It could provide a good overview of cultural heritage data and show the geographical, chronological or topic-specific context of each single element at a glance. The project team will analyze if this method actually aids in exploring the data and in understanding the relations between the data. In cognitive science this comprehension process is defined as the construction of a mental model. A higher number of connections between single bits of information within the mental model equal a better understanding of the data. Hypothesis: We assume that visualization methods based on the STC improve the construction of a mental model by displaying spatial and temporal information in an integrated way. Methods: The interdisciplinary project combines approaches of computer science and cognitive science. In a user-centered design process information visualizations will be developed and empirically evaluated through experiments. Innovative aspects: The project team develops new methods based on the STC to provide a positive learning experience for non-professional users when exploring cultural heritage data. The research will provide ground-breaking results about the comprehension and exploration of visually depicted information in cultural contexts.

Web-based collection databases of museums and cultural institutions enable fast access to important cultural assets for everyone: Millions of paintings, sculptures, musical works, and artifacts can be reached with only a few clicks. In order to get a quick overview of these collections and to explore their objects, several interactive, graphic representations and overviews have been developed in recent years. The project Towards Integrated Mental Models of Cultural Heritage Data (PolyCube) has developed synoptic representations, e.g., spatial distributions and temporal origins of objects in one combined view. These interactive methods do not only provide a good overview of the objects in a collection, but also show relevant spatio-temporal developments at a glance. In user studies we investigated whether integrated representations facilitate the exploration of a digital collection and promote a deeper understanding of relationships. In cognitive science, this understanding is called the mental model of the collection. The better its information is structured and integrated, the more comprehensive and coherent is the understanding. The results of the studies confirm that integrated presentation techniques promote a better integrated mental model and that seamless transitions between different views support a more effortless construction of a mental model. In summary, integrated representations offer an effective, exciting, but also comprehensive access to cultural history collections. The PolyCube project explored for the first time the possibilities of such representations in the field of cultural heritage and, in a broader context, explored fundamental research questions of how people understand and explore visually processed cultural data. This interdisciplinary project bridged computer science (visualization), cognitive science, and the digital humanities. The designed visualization prototype PolyCube has been presented internationally and is available for cultural heritage and research institutions worldwide for open access (https://bit.ly/polycube-vis).