Abstract. Avalanche warning services publish avalanche condition reports, often called avalanche bulletins, to help backcountry recreationists make informed risk management decisions about when and where to travel in avalanche terrain. To be successful, the information presented in bulletins must be properly understood and applied prior to entering avalanche terrain. However, few avalanche bulletin elements have been empirically tested for their efficacy in communicating hazard information. The objective of this study is to explicitly test the effectiveness of three different graphics representing the aspect and elevation of avalanche problems on users’ ability to apply the information. To address this question, we conducted an online survey that presented participants with one of three graphic renderings of avalanche problem information and asked them to rank a series of route options in order of their exposure to the described hazard. Following completion of route ranking tasks, users were presented with all three graphics and asked to rate how effective they thought the graphics were. Our analysis dataset included responses from 3,056 backcountry recreationists with a variety of backgrounds and avalanche safety training levels. Using a series of generalized linear mixed effects models, our analysis shows that a graphic format that combines the aspect and elevation information for each avalanche problem is the most effective graphic for helping users understand the avalanche hazard conditions because it resulted in higher success in picking the correct exposure ranking, faster completion times, and was rated by users to be the most effective. These results are consistent with existing research on the impact of graphics on cognitive load and can be applied by avalanche warning services to improve the communication of avalanche hazard to readers of their avalanche bulletins.

中文翻译：

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信息呈现对空间危险信息可解释性的影响：雪崩安全研究的经验教训

摘要。雪崩预警服务发布雪崩状况报告（通常称为雪崩公告），以帮助偏远地区的休闲爱好者就雪崩地形中的旅行时间和地点做出明智的风险管理决策。为了取得成功，必须在进入雪崩地形之前正确理解和应用公告中提供的信息。然而，很少有雪崩公告元素就其在传达危险信息方面的有效性进行了经验测试。本研究的目的是明确测试三种不同图形的有效性，这些图形代表雪崩问题的方面和高度对用户应用信息的能力。为了回答这个问题，我们进行了一项在线调查，向参与者展示了雪崩问题信息的三个图形渲染中的一个，并要求他们按照暴露于所描述的危险的顺序对一系列路线选项进行排名。完成路线排名任务后，用户会看到所有三个图形，并要求他们评价他们认为图形的有效性。我们的分析数据集包括来自 3,056 名具有各种背景和雪崩安全培训水平的野外休闲爱好者的回答。使用一系列广义线性混合效应模型，我们的分析表明，结合每个雪崩问题的坡向和高程信息的图形格式是帮助用户了解雪崩危险条件的最有效图形，因为它可以更成功地选择正确的暴露等级、更快的完成时间，并且被用户评为最有效。这些结果与关于图形对认知负荷影响的现有研究一致，并且可以被雪崩预警服务应用，以改善对雪崩公告读者的雪崩危害的交流。