William S. Cleveland & Robert McGill (1984)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(387), 531-554.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1984.10478080
Abstract. The definitive empirical ranking of elementary graphical-perception tasks. Shows that judgments based on position along a common scale are the most accurate, followed by position on non-aligned scales, then length/direction/angle, then area, then volume/curvature, and finally colour saturation.
Tags: visualisation perception foundational