[Taxacom] Ladderising phylogenetic trees

[George Hammond]

On Mar 8, 2010, at 10:35 PM, Kristina LEMSON wrote:

> Hi everyone
> 
> I am searching for literature in which the authors express opinions on the merits or otherwise of ladderising phylogenetic trees. Although I have found things like "one might like/ choose to ladderise the tree", I have found little that acually discusses reasons for making this decision, or the pros and cons of different forms of ladderising.
> Does anyone know of papers/books where this is considered? Alternatively, does anyone have an opinion  to share via taxacom (or direct email to me)?
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Kristina

Dr. Laura Novick, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University, has studied and published on the way students think and reason with cladograms, ladderised and not. 
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/novick/evol_diagrams.html

I haven't read her papers or webpage carefully, but it looks like her results indicate there are real differences in the way students parse one or the other.

regards,

George

____________________________________
George S. Hammond
Editor and Content Specialist
Animal Diversity Web
Museum of Zoology
University of Michigan
734-647-8715
gstarrh at umich.edu
http://animaldiversity.org