Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
The effects of visual realism, spatial abilities, and competition on performance in map-based route learning in men
Department of Geography, University of Zurich.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3178-3509
Department of Geography, University of Zurich.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5511-2646
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Computing Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5629-0981
Laboratory of Behavioural Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4948-534X
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Cartography and Geographic Information Science, ISSN 1523-0406, E-ISSN 1545-0465, Vol. 45, no 4, p. 339-353Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We report on how visual realism might influence map-based route learning performance in a controlled laboratory experiment with 104 male participants in a competitive context. Using animations of a dot moving through routes of interest, we find that participants recall the routes more accurately with abstract road maps than with more realistic satellite maps. We also find that, irrespective of visual realism, participants with higher spatial abilities (high-spatial participants) are more accurate in memorizing map-based routes than participants with lower spatial abilities (low-spatial participants). On the other hand, added visual realism limits high-spatial participants in their route recall speed, while it seems not to influence the recall speed of low-spatial participants. Competition affects participants’ overall confidence positively, but does not affect their route recall performance neither in terms of accuracy nor speed. With this study, we provide further empirical evidence demonstrating that it is important to choose the appropriate map type considering task characteristics and spatial abilities. While satellite maps might be perceived as more fun to use, or visually more attractive than road maps, they also require more cognitive resources for many map-based tasks, which is true even for high-spatial users.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2018. Vol. 45, no 4, p. 339-353
Keywords [en]
Visual realism, cartographic abstraction, spatial abilities, route learning, memory, empirical user study
National Category
Applied Psychology Human Computer Interaction
Research subject
Psychology; computer and systems sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-139888DOI: 10.1080/15230406.2017.1344569ISI: 000428780600008Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85021813445OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-139888DiVA, id: diva2:1167688
Note

First published online: 04 Jul 2017

Available from: 2017-12-19 Created: 2017-12-19 Last updated: 2023-03-07Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(4063 kB)365 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 4063 kBChecksum SHA-512
b3bbc3cfa9442b062e72ea45b90cc334bfc9f1d5e070fdf7214311fdd118642d33f6543d0d285384b0c60c0921368392468b6000e4bdf40a9e332e955214b001
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Çöltekin, ArzuFrancelet, RebeccaRichter, Kai-FlorianThoresen, John

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Çöltekin, ArzuFrancelet, RebeccaRichter, Kai-FlorianThoresen, JohnFabrikant, Sara Irina
By organisation
Department of Computing Science
In the same journal
Cartography and Geographic Information Science
Applied PsychologyHuman Computer Interaction

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 365 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 490 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf