Improving analytical reasoning and argument understanding: a quasi-experimental field study of argument visualization

a Sample argumentative text. b Argument visualization for this text created using MindMup. Claims, the sentences contained in white boxes, are the fundamental units of argument visualizations. A reason is a set of claims grouped together underneath a horizontal green bracket labeled “because”. Reasons aim to raise one’s confidence in a conclusion. Claims are grouped together into a single reason when each claim must be plausible for either to support the conclusion; they are divided into separate reasons when they support a conclusion independently. An objection is a set of claims grouped together underneath a horizontal red bracket labeled “however”. Objections aim to lower one’s confidence in a conclusion and are constructed according to the same basic conventions. Dashed borders indicate premises which remain only implicit in the text (i.e., charitable assumptions required by the argument). This argument visualization shows that the conclusion (1.1) is supported by a reason which consists of two claims (2.1 and 2.2), each of which is supported by further reasons. The first of these reasons consists of three claims, one of which (3.3) remains implicit in the text; the second consists of two claims, only one of which (3.1) is explicitly stated in the text. The claims comprising each reason are perceptually unified beneath colored horizontal lines, encouraging the viewer to consider them jointly.10 Following conventions for graphical modeling, users can represent the ‘evidential strength’ of reasons/objections by increasing or decreasing the thickness of the connecting line