The Interface Of Cognitive And Psychophysical Research In Cartography

Abstract

The interface of psychophysical and cognitive research is not an edge but an intersection. This has important implications for cartographers who often turn to the discipline of psychology for theory and methods that can be applied to the study of maps and map-use. In the past, cartographers frequently have taken a psychophysical viewpoint in their experiments. This approach has been criticized, however, and recently, a few studies have appeared which employed a cognitive or an integrated cognitive/psychophysical viewpoint. The position is taken here that there is a need in cartographic research for all three kinds of experiments: the primarily-psychophysical, the primarily cognitive, and the integrated psychophysical/cognitive. This belief is based on two factors: 1 there are certain cartographic questions that can best be answered through a specific experimental paradigm; and 2 the interaction between cognitive and psychophysical relationships in perception creates the need for some understanding of both in order to understand either. Examples are given as to how this interface can be used constructively by cartographers in their research and how it may intrude upon and confound the results of some studies.