Perceptual Responses to Line Simplification in a Task-Oriented Map Analysis Experiment
Clifford H. Wood · Cartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization · 1995
Perceptual responses to linear simplification during the performance of a map analysis task are not well documented, even though a great deal of effort has been expended on developing and perfecting digital line simplification algorithms. It is unknown, for example, whether increasing the simplification of linear map elements will reduce the amount of visual processing necessary to satisfy specific map-analysis tasks. The partial results reported in this paper are derived from a larger map analysis experiment (Wood 1992), in which the eye-movement parameters of fixations, durations of fixations, and duration per fixation were collected while subjects scanned ninety-six test maps simplified using four different line-simplification tolerances in three different map-analysis tasks. The results of this portion of the larger task-oriented map analysis experiment indicated that different levels of linear simplification contributed neither main effects nor interaction effects in explaining variation in eye-movement parameters in two of three map-analysis tasks. The data, furthermore, revealed that progressively eliminating more map detail through line simplification had little effect on the number of fixations or durations required to complete two of the three tasks.