The Use of Iambic Pentameter in the

Experiment 3
It is important to note that a user’s grouping preferences can be influenced by a
variety of factors. One such factor is prior grouping experience. Because Experiments 1
and 2 suggest that global grouping is more effective than local grouping, user interface
designers may wish to incorporate global size scales into their displays. Will the
incorporation of new size scales have utility for users who have had prior experiences
with alternative size scales? Specifically, can prior grouping experiences with certain size
scales influence how effective users are at grouping interface displays with other types of
size scales? Experiment 3 was designed to answer this question.
Method
In Experiment 3, common region served as the global grouping principle and
connectedness served as the local grouping principle (as in Experiment 1). As presented
in Figure 33, participants were shown the ambiguous experimental primes and were
trained to group by either global (common region) or local (connectedness). Primes were
then followed by a mask screen that was shown for 500ms. One half of the participants
were trained to group by the global scale properties of the ambiguous prime and one half
were trained to group by the local properties. Training took place across six blocks of 24
trials. Immediately following the training period, participants were then asked to group
the same experimental primes in a post-training experimental period. Half were asked to
group by the grouping scale that they used during training and the other half were asked
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