Joseph Donelan
This paper empirically examines the effects of information format on human judgment accuracy. The theoretical framework is based on the lens model of human judgment. An experimental design is used to test for differences in human judgment accuracy in a bond rating task. The purpose of this paper is to determine if data presentation formats can be improved by implementing a few simple rules which make tables easier to read. The results indicate that the use of certain table simplification techniques does not improve decision accuracy. However, care should be used in interpreting these results because of the small sample size and certain internal and external validity limitations.