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The subjective aspects of map-to-reader communication have begun to receive increasing attention from cartographers, but a suitable method for measuring reader attitudes toward maps has been elusive. In this study, the semantic differential technique was used to gauge reactions of subjects to a variety of thematic maps. The test proved to be sensitive to different design characteristics of the maps, and factor analysis of the results produced three factors by which the maps appeared to be judged, reflecting in part the choice of adjective pairs comprising the test.

This study investigated whether mental imagery can be an effective aid in facilitating the recall of spatial information and whether there are gender-based differences in the ability to employ such a visualization technique. Subjects were assigned to one of three treatment groups and asked to read a geographic text. One group received maps that illustrated the text; one group was instructed to form mental images of the text as they read; and a control group was given neither maps nor imagery instructions. Recall of spatial and non-spatial information was analyzed for differences due to treatment group and gender. In addition, subjects in the imagery-instruction group took standardized tests of visual memory and spatial visualization ability. There were no differences among groups on recall of non-spatial information, but both treatment group and gender had a significant effect on recall of spatial relationships. Maps and mental images functioned equally well to improve scores over the control group, and males scored higher than females from reading the text with maps. There were no gender differences on the standardized spatial ability tests. Men's scores on these tests were positively correlated with their recall of spatial information from the text, but women's scores for the same tasks were uncorrelated.

The research reported here was designed to determine how quickly and accurately map readers viewing choropleth maps on a high-resolution computer monitor are able to identify to which class an areal unit on the map belongs, when the map has between four and eight classes and is produced in shades of either gray, green or magenta. As expected, accuracy rates decreased and reaction times increased as the number of classes on the map increased. Accuracy rates ranged from 91.9% for four-class maps to 68.2% for eight-class maps (averaged for all three colors used in the study). Hue also affected accuracy rates and reaction times, the best results being obtained with achromatic (gray-shaded) maps: 84.5% correct, averaged over all numbers of classes. Maps shaded with magenta proved to be the least satisfactory with an accuracy rate of 72.8%. The study provides cartographers with empirical guidelines regarding what level of map-reading accuracy might be expected for choropleth maps designed with a given number of map classes, in a specific hue, and displayed on a high-resolution graphics monitor.

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.

Maps can be viewed as documents from which can be interpreted various philosophical, cultural or symbolical values of the society that produced them. This premise is explored, using a set of 16th-century maps and globes as the subject of study and the art historians' iconographical method of analysis. Specifically, the representation of terra australis as an enormous landmass occupying up to one-third of the southern hemisphere is discussed in terms of its form and meaning in Renaissance culture. The argument is made that the oversized southern continent reflected the pervasive influence in that culture of classical Greco-Roman themes. Greek cosmology had assumed the existence of southern lands on philosophical and aesthetic grounds, and these principles were manifest again centuries later in maps of the Renaissance.

Cartography has experienced significant conceptual and technological changes during the last 25 years, and the subject matter of published cartographic research can be seen as a reflection of that growth. The purpose of the study reported here was to examine temporal changes in the focus of cartographic research, especially studies involving user-oriented or “communication” studies. The method used was a content analysis of two categories of cartographic publications. In the first, the 920 articles in all volumes of three journals–Cartographica, The Cartographic Journal, and The American Cartographer–were classified as to research category. Secondly, for an international perspective, the categories of citations in Bibliographia Cartographicawere examined and summarized. Overall findings show distinct temporal trends in principal research topics, such as historical cartography, automated cartography, and communication research. In addition, the research published in the three English-language journals appears to have somewhat different emphases through time than those for the larger international community.