David Hillis is a biologist who has written on evolutionary trees. In response to my blog on Laura Novick’s research on the perception of cladograms, Hillis writes:

It turns out that the best tree figures for students are neither of the two options she looked at, but rather the kind of trees that we use in Life: The Science of Biology. A more comprehensive study by a Univ. of Missouri education researcher, which included each of these options, clearly showed that the best comprehension by students was achieved with figures like the one in the attached file. People rarely draw trees this way for publications, however, because they are harder to draw than the ones with straight lines.

And here’s an example:

I wonder if Laura has done research on this particular type of display.