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Gradation and Map Analysis in Area-Class Maps

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Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 3693))

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Abstract

This paper reports on a preliminary experiment to determine if gradation on area-class maps facilitates complex map analysis tasks. Twenty-nine subjects were shown either a traditional (crisp) map or one of three graded maps created from the same underlying data, and asked to perform analysis tasks involving two different spatial scales and levels of mental map development. Performance on simple lookup tasks was highest using the crisp map, but each of the more complex tasks was performed with greatest accuracy using a map that depicted gradation between regions. The results suggest that portrayal of gradation on area-class maps may facilitate complex analysis tasks involving global map comprehension and memory of map pattern.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MS 1E2, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Barry J. Kronenfeld

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  1. Barry J. Kronenfeld
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Anthony G. Cohn

  2. Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, 105 Wilkeson Quad, 14261, Buffalo, NY, USA

    David M. Mark

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kronenfeld, B.J. (2005). Gradation and Map Analysis in Area-Class Maps. In: Cohn, A.G., Mark, D.M. (eds) Spatial Information Theory. COSIT 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3693. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11556114_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11556114_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28964-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32020-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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