Validation through Replication of Augmented Reality as a Visualization Technique for Scholarly Publications in Astronomy

The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are evolving and incorporating technologies to effectively view and explore 3D data visualizations, including Augmented Reality (AR). An analysis of the feasibility of using AR in journal publications for 3D visualizations took place two years ago, in 2023, when Adams et al. evaluated whether the perceived workload between AR and non-AR technologies was comparable. Given that the use of AR for astronomy journal publications was, and still is, in its infancy, the original study had to utilize data intended for K-12 education that had similar interactions and data types as a proxy for real-world data that could be visualized in future astronomy publications. In this paper, we present the results of a conceptual replication study of Adams et al.’s work to validate whether their findings hold with real astronomy stimuli. We found in our replication that many of the trends in the original study hold true, but that the workload experienced by participants was significantly higher under multiple conditions when using real-world data. Additionally, we found that the tradeoff between engagement and workload was as prevalent in the replication as it was in the original study. Our results provide a new framing for researchers to understand the tradeoffs of immersive visualization technologies and the increased workload of pairing these tools with complex, scientific stimuli. All Supplemental Material in our study is available at https://osf.io/j8urq/.