TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of maps in spatial knowledge acquisition
AU - MacEachren, A. M.
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to express my thanks to Andrew Marcus for assistance in data collection, Frances MacEachren for help in data compilation, and Bill Trunninger in the Deasy GeoGraphies Laboratory for assistance with graphics. The project was supported in part by a Faculty Research Fund Grant from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University. "Project Region," an exercise used by George McCleary in his Maps and Mapping Course at the University of Kansas, served as the model for the classroom exercise described. His willingness to share this and other ideas is appreciated.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1991/12/1
Y1 - 1991/12/1
N2 - One goal of cartographic research is to improve the usefulness of maps. To do so, we must consider the process of spatial knowledge acquisition, the role of maps in that process, and the content of cognitive representations derived. Research from psychology, geography, and other disciplines related to these issues is reviewed. This review is used to suggest potential new directions for research with particular attention to spatial problem solving and geographic instruction. A classroom experiment related to these issues is then described. The experiment highlights some of the implications that a concern for the process of spatial knowledge acquisition will have on questions and methods of cartographic research as well as on the use of maps in geographic instruction. It also provides evidence of independent but interrelated verbal and spatial components of regional images that can be altered by directed map work.
AB - One goal of cartographic research is to improve the usefulness of maps. To do so, we must consider the process of spatial knowledge acquisition, the role of maps in that process, and the content of cognitive representations derived. Research from psychology, geography, and other disciplines related to these issues is reviewed. This review is used to suggest potential new directions for research with particular attention to spatial problem solving and geographic instruction. A classroom experiment related to these issues is then described. The experiment highlights some of the implications that a concern for the process of spatial knowledge acquisition will have on questions and methods of cartographic research as well as on the use of maps in geographic instruction. It also provides evidence of independent but interrelated verbal and spatial components of regional images that can be altered by directed map work.
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U2 - 10.1179/caj.1991.28.2.152
DO - 10.1179/caj.1991.28.2.152
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0026268530
SN - 0008-7041
VL - 28
SP - 152
EP - 162
JO - Cartographic Journal
JF - Cartographic Journal
IS - 2
ER -