The acquisition and processing of cartographic information: Some preliminary experimentation

Two studies are presented that probed map readers’ abilities to isolate and process cartographic information visually. The first study describes a limited investigation of the relationship between three fixation-related variables and the informational characteristics of a map. The results indicated that map reading was typified by intelligent scanning. The second study followed from the first and describes six experiments investigating the relationship between the amount of graphic information and the accuracy of processing during a map-like visual choice task. The results of these experiments indicated that increasing the amount of graphic information decreased the accuracy of response when a basic level of information was presented.