Explicit and Implicit Tabulation Formats

Abstract

Five studies are reported of performance with currency conversion tables based on two alternative principles of tabulation. In a simulated shopping situation there was an initial speed advantage for the table which explicitly listed all pairs of equivalent prices. The other table, which gave conversions of shillings separately from the conversion of pence, was not only slower to use, it was more often incorrectly used. Data from a modified Market Survey technique showed that many of the general public incorrectly used this more difficult ‘ implicit ’ format even when given an illustrative example. Presenting school children with both numerical and non-numerical tables indicated that the difficulty of the implicit format was not caused by the mental arithmetic involved, although it was associated with combining separate items of information. Juxtaposition of the items was more easily achieved than a synthesis.