Map Perception and Cognition

Abstract

Map perception is the process of using the human senses to acquire spatial information about the surrounding environment from maps. Maps, in this sense, are defined quite broadly as any representation that demonstrates spatial relationships (where things are in relation to each other) in an environment. Map cognition, on the other hand, involves mental (or brain) functions and capabilities that facilitate the acquisition and integration of spatial knowledge from maps through reasoning, intuition, and/or perception. To understand the significant breadth and scope of map perception and cognition, one must consider the historical developments of the four different research areas that have evolved in this field. These four areas were essentially born 60 years ago with the publication of Arthur Robinson’s The Look of Maps in 1952. The Look of Maps focused on issues of map design, spawning a large body of psychophysical studies that explored the perception of ‘graphic marks’, – what people see when they look at maps. Born from this early psychophysical work was the idea that maps are devices for communication and that they convey a coherent message set forth by the cartographer. Models for communication were borrowed from psychology and adapted for the perception of maps. Next to develop was a very multidisciplinary branch of research on maps and cognition. This body of work explored how maps facilitate spatial knowledge and behavior, and delved into the underlying cognitive structures and functions that maps effect. The most recent body of work is called geographic visualization (GVis). GVis comprises the techniques and technologies (whose development was informed by previous psychophysical studies, previous models for map communication, and previous cognitive models for spatial knowledge and behavior) that facilitate the understanding of complex spatial phenomena via both traditional and nontraditional maps and other spatial representations.