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NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR CARTOGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION AND NAVIGATION WITH GUIDE MAPS Wakabayashi, Y.

Department of Geography, Tokyo Metropolitan University Minami Ohsawa 1-1, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0397, JAPAN E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine necessary conditions for communication of geographic information and navigation with guide maps by conducting two experiments. The result of the first experiment showed that not only local landmarks but well-known place names were necessary to identify the location indicated by the map. Spatial abilities of the subject also affected the performance of the identification task when the map indicated unfamiliar places. The second experiment concerning the navigation with guide maps revealed that the performance level of the navigation was affected by map user’s wayfinding ability rather than the style of the guide maps.

1.

INTRODUCTION

The recent advances in cartographic technologies have popularized computer aided mapping. Nevertheless, hand-drawn maps giving direction still play an important role in everyday life of the general public. Especially in Japan, this kind of simplified guide map has been widely used even in the digital media. This can be due to the difficulty in direction giving and wayfinding in Japanese cities because of the area-based postal addresses not ordered along streets [1]. Although cartographers have paid little attention to these naive and commonplace maps, it should be of great significance in understanding the nature of the communication with maps to examine the essential element of the cartographic communication process. Since 1970s, cartographers have studied the process of communicating geographic information with maps mainly focusing on the perception of the sign elements of maps [2, 3]. Especially in the late 1970’s, cartographers shifted their attention to cognitive map-design research applying cognitive theories and methods [4]. While most of the earliest empirical research employed psychophysical approach concerning low-level perceptual process, recent work in this field is entirely based on the theories and methods of cognitive science dealing with high-level cognitive process. In addition, the importance of contextual effects of map symbols on the map reading process has been pointed out [5]. Nevertheless, previous studies have not paid much attention to guide maps but focused on .topographical maps or thematic maps. Psychologists have also studied the properties of spatial cognition using maps. These studies mainly concerned with comparison between primary sources (e.g., travel behavior) and secondary ones (e.g., map reading) of cognitive mapping [6], but little is known about the effects of contents and representations of maps. On the other hand, a great deal of effort has been made to inquire into human wayfinding behavior in psychology and related fields. While maps obviously assist navigation in unfamiliar environments, most of the previous studies have dealt with wayfinding behavior without maps in small-scale space with a few exceptions [8, 9]. Hence, more effort must be made to investigate the role of maps in navigating through large-scale environments. The aim of this study is to examine necessary conditions for communication of geographic information and navigation with guide maps by considering the effect of the contents and representation of maps.

2.

FRAMEWORK OF THIS STUDY

In general, people use various kinds of spatial knowledge and strategies according to the conditions of wayfinding behavior [10]. We are concerned here with the role of guide maps in navigating through unfamiliar environments. Guide maps giving direction has been widely used in Japan as mentioned above. Recently an algorithm for identifying features in a simplified route map [11] and software for automatic production of guide maps have been developed using

GIS; an effective route guide for navigation assist and a new interface with pictorial and linguistic representations applicable to the small displays of cellular phones have been examined [12]. These studies, however, focused on the navigation within a local space omitting spatial information to reach local space and the hierarchical structure of spatial knowledge. In real world settings, information of different classes of spatial hierarchy must be included in the guide maps to help people to reach destination. Hence, the spatial extent of the information transmitted by guide maps for navigation can be depicted as Figures 1 and 2 on the basis of a content analysis of guide maps in the telephone directory of a Japanese city [13]. These figures indicate a working hypothesis that not only spatial information along the route but also information connecting familiar environment and unfamiliar one is necessary for wayfinding with guide maps.

Figure 1 Relation between a guide map and the space familiar to map users.

Figure 2 Hierarchical spatial relation depicted by the guide map. Figure 1 also implies that wayfinding behavior is a process of expanding one’s action space. Naturally, successful navigation in an unfamiliar environment requires map user’s spatial abilities to identify the locations on maps and orient oneself using prior knowledge of the environment. Hence, necessary conditions for navigation with guide maps are concerned not only with the content and representation of maps but with spatial abilities of map users. This study deals with the following questions: (1) What kind of content and representation is suitable for communicating a route with the guide map? (2) Whether spatial abilities influence on the task of wayfinding with maps? (3) How cognitive mapping and navigation are influenced by the representation of guide maps? (4) Whether spatial abilities influence on the cognitive mapping and navigation with guide maps?

3.

3.2

EXPERIMENT 1: COMMUNICATION WITH GUIDE MAPS

Method

The aim of the Experiment 1 was to examine the questions (1) and (2) concerning the conditions for communication with guide maps. Thirty-six students (24 males and 12 females) of Tokyo Metropolitan University participated in this experiment and were tested individually. They were given rough guide maps indicating five different places in Tokyo. Participants were asked to answer whether they were able to identify the location of the place indicated in the guide map. If subjects answered yes, they required to find the location on a road atlas of Tokyo (scale 1: 10,000). This task was repeated until they could identify the location correctly up to four times for each map by adding features or place names on the map gradually (Figure 3).

Figure 3

An example of the guide map presented to the subjects in each trial (Map 1N).

Subjects were also asked whether they visited the place on the map and required to answer the way to the destination. Examples of the maps used in the experiment are shown in Figure 4. To test the effect of the direction of the guide map, 14 subjects were given north-up map and 22 subjects were given south-up ones for Map 1.

Figure 4

Examples of the guide maps presented to the subjects in Experiment 1.

In addition, the SDQ-S (Sense of Direction Questionnaire-Short Form) [14] was applied to test subjects’ wayfinding abilities. The questionnaire consists of 20 questions concerning the experience of navigation and direction giving requiring respondents to self-evaluate their own sense of direction on a scale from one to five. I applied the factor analysis to the scores for each question obtaining two factors with a varimax rotation. Table 1 shows the factor loadings. Factor 1 can be interpreted as “directional sense” related to the cognitive mapping of survey-type representation; Factor 2 is called “recognition of landmarks” closely related to the cognitive mapping of route-type representation.

Table 1 Items of the SDQ-S forms and the factor loadings for the self-evaluation of wayfinding abilities No. Items Factor 1 Factor 2 1 I cannot make correct choices as to cardinal directions in an unfamiliar place. 0.779 0.084 2 I cannot understand distances in meters or kilometers. 0.636 0.241 When I get route information, I can make use of "left or right" information, but I 3 0.744 0.112 cannot use cardinal directions. 4 I can hardly understand a train's direction by thecardinal points. 0.705 0.318 5 I feel anxious about my walking direction in an unfamiliar environment. 0.531 0.424 6 I cannot make out which direction my room in a hotel faces. 0.768 -0.071 7 I have a lot of difficulties reaching the unknown place even after looking at a map. 0.561 -0.012 8 I cannot tell where I am on a map. 0.758 0.218 9 I cannot visualize the route as a map-like image. 0.643 0.225 10 I have poor memory for landmarks. 0.057 0.775 11 I cannot recognize landmarks in wayfinding. 0.013 0.621 12 I cannot remember landmarks found in the area where I have often been. -0.060 0.774 13 I cannot remember the different aspects of sceneries. 0.254 0.534 I become totally confused as to the correct sequence of the return way as a 14 0.574 0.348 consequence of a number of left-right turns in the route. 15 I often forget which direction I turned. 0.556 0.126 16 I do not verify landmarks in a turn of the route. 0.102 0.706 17 I often cannot find the way even if given detailed verbal information on the route. 0.376 0.473 18 It is difficult for me to find the destination in the residential area of the same type of 0.305 0.569 19 I cannot tell the difference between streets, which are very similar to each other. 0.420 0.435 20 I am totally dependent on others whenever I move in a group. 0.224 0.535 Contributions (%) 27.1 20.0

3.2

Results

Table 2 shows the number of subjects who could identify the location on the guide map by trials for each map. Nobody could identify the location by the map only with local landmarks except for Map 5 that indicated a famous place of downtown Tokyo. This implies that local landmarks cannot provide map readers with sufficient information for navigation unless the destination is well-known place. Table 2 Number of respondents who could identify the location on the guide map in each trial Map /Trial Added elements N* Map /Trial Added elements N* Map 1N (3/14) Map 3 (1/22) 1 Landmark name 0 1 Landmark name 0 2 Road name 2 2 Road name 0 3 Station name 10 3 Place name outside the map frame 3 4 Place name outside the map frame 2 4 Station name 4 X (incapable of identifying) 0 X (incapable of identifying) 15 Map 1S (4/22) Map 4 (15/22) 1 Landmark name 0 1 Landmark name 0 2 Road name 2 2 Road name 1 3 Station name 17 3 Station name 16 4 Place name outside the map frame 2 4 Place name outside the map frame 4 X (incapable of identifying) 1 X (incapable of identifying) 1 Map 2 (0/22) Map 5 (22/22) 1 Landmark name 0 1 Station name 1 2 Road name 0 2 Landmark name 14 3 Station name 0 3 Road name 6 4 Place name outside the map frame 8 4 Place name outside the map frame 1 X (incapable of identifying) 14 X (incapable of identifying) 0 * Number of respondents who could identify the location. Numbers in parentheses denote the number of respondents who visited the place / total number of respondents.

The number of trials necessary to identify the location depends on the subjects’ familiarity with the place measured by the number of subjects who visited the place shown in the parenthesis in Table 2. For relatively well-known places of Maps 1, 4 and 5, the majority of the subjects identified locations until the third trial; for Maps 2 and 3 unfamiliar to the subjects, most of them could not identify the locations. Hence, it seems that cartographic communication with guide maps is dependent on map user’s prior knowledge of the environment in question. With regard to the type of element on the guide map, the name of railroad station which is a major node in Tokyo became a key to identify the location. For Maps 1 and 3 giving the name of railroad station unfamiliar to the subjects, however, place names outside the map frame played an important role in giving locational information in a wider area. To examine the effect of wayfinding abilities of the respondents, the Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient between the number of trials necessary to identify the location and sense of direction scores was calculated (Table 3). Positive correlations significant at 5% level were detected for Maps 1 to 3 that depict places unfamiliar to the subjects, while there was no significant correlation for Maps 4 and 5 including well-known places. This suggests that people with good sense of direction can understand the guide map even if less information is given on the map, which is especially true for unfamiliar places. Table 3 Rank correlation between sense of direction scores and the performance of locational identification task Sense of direction score N Total score Factor 1 Factor 2   Map 1N 0.598 * 0.464 0.464 14 Map 1S 0.374 0.359 -0.058 22 Map 2 0.410 0.178 0.462 * 22 Map 3 0.492 * 0.464 * 0.141 22 Map 4 0.116 0.128 -0.032 22 Map 5 0.195 0.175 0.117 22 Note: Fourteen subjects performed the task only for Map 1N and 22 subjects done for the remaining maps. * p