Interpreting Spatial Patterns: An Inquiry Into Formal and Cognitive Aspects of Tobler's First Law of Geography

Abstract

The characterization, identification, and understanding of spatial patterns are central concerns of geography. Deeply rooted in the notion that geographic location matters, one testable assumption is that near things are more related than distant things-a concept often referred to as Tobler's first law of geography. One means of quantifying this assumption is using measures of spatial autocorrelation. Several such measures have been developed to test whether a pattern is indeed clustered, or dispersed, or whether it is, from a statistical perspective, random. To shed light on how spatial patterns are understood from a cognitive perspective, this article reports results from studies of spatial pattern interpretation represented in maps. For the purpose of experimental validation, we used a two-color map. We systematically varied the ratio of the colors as well as the level of significance of clustering and dispersion; we targeted two groups: experts and nonexperts. The task for both experts and nonexperts was to sort patterns according to five specified categories of spatial autocorrelation structures. The results show clearly that patterns are understood on the basis of the dominant color, by both experts and nonexperts. A third experiment, using a free classification paradigm, confirmed the dominance of the color effect. These results are important, as they point to critical aspects of pattern perception and understanding that need to be addressed from the perspective of spatial thinking, especially how people relate concepts of randomness with spatial patterns (represented in maps). Key Words: interpretation of spatial patterns, spatial autocorrelation, Tobler's first law.La caracterización, identificación y entendimiento de los patrones espaciales son preocupaciones centrales de la geografía. Profundamente arraigada en la noción de que la localización geográfica importa, un supuesto probable es que las cosas cercanas tienen más relación que las cosas distantes -concepto a menudo referido como la primera ley de la geografía de Tobler. Uno de los medios para cuantificar este supuesto es el uso de medidas de autocorrelación espacial. Varias de tales medidas han sido desarrolladas para probar si un patrón en verdad es aglomerado, o disperso, o si desde una perspectiva estadística es aleatorio. Para aclarar cómo son entendidos los patrones espaciales desde una perspectiva cognitiva, este artículo informa sobre estudios de interpretación de patrones espaciales representados en mapas. Nosotros utilizamos dos mapas a color para los efectos de validación experimental. Sistemáticamente variamos la razón de los colores lo mismo que el nivel de significación de la aglomeración y la dispersión; pusimos la mira en dos grupos: expertos e inexpertos. La tarea para ambos grupos fue igual, o sea clasificar los patrones de acuerdo con cinco categorías específicas de estructuras de autocorrelación espacial. Los resultados claramente muestran que los patrones son entendidos con base en el color dominante, tanto por expertos como i...

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