The Effects of Prior Knowledge on the Learning of Categories of Maps

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to answer several important questions concerning the learning of categories of geographic information from maps. Categorization is a fundamental part of both learning and communication, and learning and communication are, in turn, central to any ªeld of study. If categorization is a fundamental part of the learning process, then how people categorize information learned from maps must be of concern to cartographers and geographers. This study examines map reader categorization by having subjects in an experimental situation learn categories of maps. The primary variables in this study are the coherence of the categories and the duration of exposure to the categories. It was found that coherent categories cause subjects to rely on prior knowledge. The ability to use prior knowledge allows subjects to learn categories quickly, but it also causes them to make inaccurate assumptions about the category membership. This ªnding was not altered when subjects were given longer exposures to the category membership.

Maps and Biased Familiarity: Cognitive Distance Error and Reference Points

“…This might be true for a number of reasons. First, if a map shows the locations of a set of cities, and one of the cities represents home to the map reader, that city is likely to have more information already stored in memory; this prior knowledge provides more potential connections for encoding new information (Patton 1997;Verdi and Kulhavy 2002). Second, the map reader is also more likely to find a specific reason to pay attention to a particular city location on the map if it represents his or her home; this should encourage learning related to the home location.…”

The Search for Boundaries on Maps: Color Processing and Map Pattern Effects

“…They may know that it will be a relatively large object or that it will have a particular shape. This prior knowledge can be provided by a map legend or, possibly, learned during previous experiences with maps (Patton 1997). Both top-down and bottom-up information can be critical for efficient map reading (Uoyd 19S8;Brennan and Uoyd 1993;Uoyd 1997).…”

Organization of Feature-, Time-, and Location-Based Mental Models

“…Since inanimate objects were not selected as containers, but some subjects did encode people-based mental models, this suggests that the salience of the types of objects or concepts encoded into the models could influence which object or concept is selected to be the container (Radvansky et al1993). How would subjects respond if the spatial locations were wellknown geographic locations previously encoded as prior knowledge into long-term memory (Patton 1997)? What would the response be if the same information were learned from a visual display, e.g., a cartographic map, instead of being read from a text?…”

“…The internal structures we encode into memory when learning such information can be useful in making fast and accurate decisions in the future (Jih and Reeves 1992). They may also lead to unwanted and systematic errors (Cho and Mathews 1996;Patton 1997).…”