Studies by psychologists suggest that males are more proficient than females in performing many types of spatial tasks. There is no information, however, as to whether the results of psychological research are relevant and applicable to geography. This paper summarizes psychologists' views of spatial skills, discusses them from a geographical perspective, and reports the results of five map-use experiments that were analyzed for sex-based differences among participants. Two of the studies, one with fourth-grade students and one with undergraduates, tested the students' ability to use cartographic illustrations as an aid to learning geographic information. The remaining experiments investigated how well male and female children and adults could perform typical map-use tasks such as route planning, symbol identification, visual search and estimation, and rightheft orientation. In both sets of studies, the main sex-based differences were found in the younger age groups, where boys' performance was superior to girls'. Among college students, map-use scores for females and males were almost identical. These results suggest that the findings of psychologists regarding sex-based and developmental patterns in spatial abilities may not be directly transferable to geography.
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.
health sciences, history THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW utpjournals.press/chr Offering a comprehensive analysis on the events that have shaped Canada, CHR publishes articles that examine Canadian history from both a multicultural and multidisciplinary perspective.
Journalistic maps are used extensively by the North American news media to show the locations of places featured in the news and to help explain spatial aspects of news stories. These maps are produced within a demanding set of conditions which often influences the effectiveness of their designs. A general model of map design factors is introduced here and used as a basis for discussing specific constraints on journalistic maps. Actual maps that accompanied news accounts of the 1983 Korean airliner shooting demonstrate the important role that the map designer plays in the look of journalistic maps.
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