SVLAT: Scientific Visualization Literacy Assessment Test

TL;DR

SVLAT is a validated assessment tool designed to measure the general public's ability to read, interpret, and understand scientific visualizations across various techniques and tasks, filling a critical gap in SciVis literacy evaluation.

Contribution

This paper introduces SVLAT, the first psychometrically validated instrument for assessing scientific visualization literacy in the general public.

Findings

SVLAT has high reliability (omega_t=0.82, alpha=0.81).

The instrument covers diverse visualization techniques and tasks.

Validated through extensive psychometric analysis.

Abstract

Scientific visualization (SciVis) has become an essential means for exploring, understanding, and communicating complex scientific phenomena. However, the field still lacks a validated instrument assessing how well people read, understand, and interpret them. We present a scientific visualization literacy assessment test (SVLAT) that measures the general public's SciVis literacy. Covering a range of visualization forms and interpretation demands, SVLAT comprises 49 items grounded in 18 scientific visualizations and illustrations spanning eight visualization techniques and 11 tasks. Instrument development followed a staged, psychometrically grounded pipeline. We defined the construct and blueprint, followed by item generation, and expert review with five SciVis experts using the content validity ratio (mean CVR = 0.79). We subsequently administered a pilot test (30 participants) and a large-scale test tryout (485 participants) to evaluate the instrument's psychometric properties. For validation, we performed item analysis and refinement using both classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) to examine item functioning and overall test quality. SVLAT demonstrates high reliability in the tryout sample (McDonald's omega_t = 0.82, Cronbach's alpha = 0.81). The assessment materials are available at https://osf.io/hr3nw/.