The Lay of the Land: Sensing and Representing Topography

Abstract

Navigating, and studying spatial navigation, is difficult enough in two dimensions when maps and terrains are flat. Here we consider the capacity for human spatial navigation on sloped terrains, and how sloping terrain is depicted in 2D map representations, called topographic maps. First, we discuss research on how simple slopes are encoded and used for reorientation, and to learn spatial configurations. Next, we describe how slope is represented in topographic maps, and present an assessment (the Topographic Map Assessment), which can be administered to measure topographic map comprehension. Finally, weThe Lay of the Land 2 describe several approaches our lab has taken with the aim of improving topographic map comprehension, including gesture and analogy. The current research reveals a rich and complex picture of topographic map understanding, which likely involves perceptual expertise, strong spatial skills, and inferential logic.There are many ways to navigate the spatial world. In the past decade, we have come to rely on technology to find our destinations, using computers and smart phones to provide step-by-step instructions on the best route, display an overall map, or tell us which way is north (if we choose to ask that question). But humans did not evolve in the technological world, although they eventually created it. Our ancestors used many cues for wayfinding. Some of these systems were part of a common evolutionary heritage, shared with other mammals and also with birds, insects and even with reptiles and amphibians, as would be expected given the importance of successful navigation for survival. But humans' abilities for abstract and symbolic reasoning also supported our species in the invention of complex and culturally communicated systems (Gladwin 1970;Hutchins 1995;Huth 2013), and increasingly, technological tools. Thus, for humans, understanding navigation entails both understanding shared cross-species capacities for navigation, and the uniquely human symbolic additions that augment those capacities.Modern cross-species research on navigation has generally concentrated on two navigation systems, often called the egocentric and allocentric systems (for reviews, see Jacobs & Menzel 2014;Wiener et al. 2011). These systems are distinct, but they can combine and supplement each other in various ways (e.g., Zhao & Warren 2015). Egocentric systems involve our bodily senses and body-centered encoding of spatial location, e.g., the window is behind me. Egocentric coding is useful for wayfinding only if it is updated by information about our movement through space, both in terms of direction (e.g., we know that the window that was behind us is now to our left, after we turn 90 degrees), and distance (e.g., we know that the window is now much further behind us after we walk 100 paces forward). When egocentric systems are updated in this way, they are often called inertial navigation systems, or dead reckoning. Allocentric coding does not depend on the body, but rather uses external landmarks, s...

Learning to interpret topographic maps: Understanding layered spatial information

“…(2015) found that undergraduate men perform better than women on the Topographic Map Assessment (TMA) instrument. Similarly, Boardman (1989) found gender differences in topographic map comprehension in 11 to 14-year-old children.…”

“…The assessment is not timed. Six problems have more than one item (e.g., draw a path and provide an explanation), and for purposes of scoring these problems, each item was awarded one point (Newcombe et al ., 2015). …”

“…We developed materials for Experiment 2 by adapting those from Experiment 1 and a pilot study (Newcombe et al ., 2015), all of which were the same across all three conditions for Experiment 2 (except for what was said by the experimenters). The sample topographic map from Experiment 1 was used to introduce topographic maps.…”

“…Previous work suggested a dissociation between items that required an understanding of elevation information and items that required an understanding of shape information; participants who used the word “elevation” in their written descriptions of practice maps did better in an assessment of topographic map comprehension (Newcombe et al ., 2015). …”

Using Eye Tracking to Explore Differences in Map-Based Spatial Ability between Geographers and Non-Geographers

“…Both groups had taken required courses such as advanced mathematics, programming, and general physics. Specifically, geographers all took courses closely related to geography such as Surveying and Cartography, Geology and Geomorphology, GIS and Geography Field Practice, which have been proved to improve spatial ability [20,45]. Non-geographers took their own professional courses such as The Constitution, Principles of Economics, and General Psychology.…”