為什麼學術論文中，表頭放於表之上，而圖名放於圖之下？

01-23

轉一篇 TeX.sx 上的回答：

It has to do with the way people absorb printed information or, more accurately, how readers of Western texts are acculturated into this.

Tables are textual devices and are, to some or other approximate degree, structured to be read in the same left-&>right, top-&>bottom order (*). To this degree, they therefore do not differ in important information processing ways from the body text. Normal text (not, e.g., poetry or other intentionally disruptive forms) is ordinarily structured in a "pyramidal" form: general and introductory concepts are best placed at the beginning, with increasingly fleshed-out details placed later on. The reading eye that saccades across text and the brain that controls it has learnt beginning at the age of two or whatever to most efficiently gather (Western) textual information in this way. By our age, we cannotnot process text this way.
Graphics, on the other hand, are iconic. The eye does not scan pictures for information in remotely the same way (in fact entirely different cerebral systems are in charge of gathering and interpreting textual and graphical information - you can knock out one part of the brain and impair one system without noticeably affecting the performance of the other; see, e.g., almost any popular writing by Oliver Sachs). It would be almost impossible to prevent the normal human brain from scanning and interpreting, no matter how briefly, a picture on the page before forcing it to reading the caption (no matter where the caption is placed because by that time the attentional mechanisms in the part of the brain that is now switched on is directing the eye to saccade in non-linear sequences).
So, to answer your question, good typesetting sets out to provide readers the most productive (rate of information processing for expended effort) reading experience that it can. For text: the caption summary is placed above the details to fit in with linear eye saccades and the pyramid principle of text interpretation; for graphics: the graphic is placed first to fit in with quite different attentional control mechanisms, non-linear eye saccading and non-linear information processing.
(*) Factor in acculturation. Good typesetting for R-&>L or bottom-&>top reading orders will follow these general principles (for biologically human species (**)) , leading however to different outcomes.

(**) The point is that it"s our brain biology that has ultimately led to the development of these rules. Here"s something to think about: what are the optimal typesetting rules for non-human species, e.g., maybe sapient machines, or echo-locating information gatherers like bats or porpoises. Where would they like to "see" their captions? :))
graphics - Why should a table caption be placed above the table?

簡單來說，這樣的設計是為了方便人們更舒服地閱讀文章。

人類閱讀表格和圖片的方式是不一樣的。表格也算是一種文字信息，人們閱讀它和平時閱讀整塊文本的習慣相符合，大致是：從上到下、從左到右。因此，表格標題這種總結提示性的信息，應該放在表格開始之前。圖片與表格不同，人類大腦處理圖片的方式與表格大相徑庭，甚至閱讀圖片時激活的大腦區域也與處理表格時不同。對於人類來說，在正常的閱讀過程中，強迫先閱讀圖片標題而後閱讀圖片，要不然做不到，要不然做到了也很難受。因此，不如就把圖片放前面，讓大腦處理完之後再去閱讀圖片標題。

當然，這本質上是一個約定行為。如果雜誌社要求你按照固定的方式去擺放圖標及其標題，你卻非要按照你的習慣去做——這屬於自己找事。不過，基於上述考慮，圖片先於標題而表格後於標題，幾乎已經是約定俗成的了。

至於有的答案提到了「部分期刊會傾向於將圖標標題放在頁邊」。這正如所說，本質上是一個約定的問題，期刊希望這麼做，那就這麼做就好了。不過，在閱讀這些期刊的時候，遇見表格，我們還是會第一時間去找標題；遇見圖片，還是會先掃一眼圖片，再去看標題。所以，這種特例，都不是事兒……

感謝閱讀。: )

有沒有可能大家第一眼還是看圖的，往下拉的過程中看到有意思的圖就開始自然而然地往下看圖的註解，省的再往上翻了。。。

這個算不算是例外呢？個人覺得應該是期刊不同，要求會有差異

不問是不是，就問為什麼都是______。