Graphs have become an increasingly important means of representing data, for instance, when communicating data on climate change. However, graph characteristics might significantly affect graph comprehension. The goal of the present work was to test whether the marking forms usually depicted on line-graphs, can have an impact on graph evaluation. As past work suggests that triangular forms might be related to threat, we compared the effect of triangular marking forms with other symbols (triangles, circles, squares, rhombi, and asterisks) on subjective assessments. Participants in Study 1 (N = 314) received 5 different line-graphs about climate change, each of them using one out of 5 marking forms. In Study 1, the threat and arousal ratings of the graphs with triangular marking shapes were not higher than those with the other marking symbols. Participants in Study 2 (N = 279) received the same graphs, yet without labels and indeed rated the graphs with triangle point markers as more threatening. Testing whether local rather than global spatial attention would lead to an impact of marker shape in climate graphs, Study 3 (N = 307) documented that a task demanding to process a specific data-point on the graph (rather than just the line graph as a whole) did not lead to an effect either. These results suggest that marking symbols can principally affect threat and arousal ratings but not in the context of climate change. Hence, in graphs on climate change, choice of point markers does not have to take potential side-effects on threat and arousal into account. These seem to be restricted to the processing of graphs where form aspects face less competition from the content domain on judgments.

图表已成为表示数据的越来越重要的手段，例如，在交流气候变化数据时。然而，图特征可能会显着影响图理解。当前工作的目标是测试通常在折线图中描绘的标记形式是否会对图形评估产生影响。由于过去的工作表明三角形形式可能与威胁有关，我们比较了三角形标记形式与其他符号（三角形、圆形、正方形、菱形和星号）对主观评估的影响。研究 1 的参与者 ( N = 314) 收到 5 个关于气候变化的不同折线图，每个折线图使用 5 种标记形式中的一种。在研究 1 中，带有三角形标记形状的图形的威胁和唤醒评级不高于带有其他标记符号的图形。研究 2 的参与者 ( N  = 279) 收到了相同的图表，但没有标签，并且确实将带有三角形点标记的图表评为更具威胁性。测试局部而非全局空间注意力是否会导致气候图中标记形状的影响，研究 3 ( N = 307) 记录了要求处理图上特定数据点（而不仅仅是线图作为一个整体）的任务也没有产生效果。这些结果表明，标记符号主要会影响威胁和唤醒评级，但不会在气候变化的背景下产生影响。因此，在气候变化图表中，点标记的选择不必考虑对威胁和唤醒的潜在副作用。这些似乎仅限于图形的处理，其中形式方面在判断方面面临来自内容领域的较少竞争。