There is a massive literature amongst "conventional" cartographers on the visualization of cartographic data, as summarized most effectively by MacEachren (1995). For the most part, this expertise remains outside the realm of cybercartography of digital spaces. However, much of the work of translating this work to digital media have been made a new push in the cartographic fields to make computerized maps, in particular for Geographic Information Systems. A decent primer is Kraak & Ormeling (1996). However, Kraak (2001) later published a much more concise discussion of mapping on the web.
Robinson really kickstarted the field in earnest
J. M. Olson has done a lot of work on MapVisualzation based on HumanVision.
MacEachren, of course.
M. J. Kraak
A. Brown
DiBiase, D. --> map in its role in scientific visualization, particularly
DiBiase, D. (1990) visualziation in the earth sciences. Earth and Mineral Sciences, Bulletin of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 59(2), 13-18.
MacEachren 1995
It has been apparent to cartograohpers for over a century that various characteristsic of human vision influence how we "see" and interpret maps.
Early example: convention of using spectral or part spectral sequences to depict elevation zones on layer tint relief maps. 1898 Peucker (Imhof, 1965/1982)
Imhof, E. (1982) Cartographic relief presentation. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. (German edition, 1965)
(Robinson, 1952) placed identification of "least practical differences" near the top of the research agenda --> much earliest empirical work by cartographers interested in human-map interaction focused on this problem or the related perceptual issues of visual search and magnitude judgments (of lines, circles, gray tones, etc.)
It has become clear that human vision is highly variable and difficult to predict, particularly when the visual task invovles a stimulas as complex as a map. At this point, our efforts to explain map reading in relation to constraints of vision and the resulting influence on discrimination and other low-level processes have resulted in an idiosyncratic set of case-specific conclusions that we cannot confidently extend to other applications.
Human vision and visual cognition remain incompletely understood. The idea that vision is an information-processing system and that information is "constructed" from sensory input (rather than communicated via visual pathways) represents several cartographic researchers (e.g. Eastman, 1985; Peterson, 1987)
Gibson (1979) "ecological" approach is dominant alternative to info-processing system, but it does not apply well to cartographic systems, and only one cartographer (Castner, 1990) has tried.
One of the major flaws identified in the communication-model paradigm for cartography was that it failed to account for the active role of the map user in deriving meaning from maps. Olson (1979) has, in fact, suggested that readers actively "give meaning to maps."
Marr (1982) describes vision and information processing systems as multileveled.
- he distinguished between three levels of understanding: the level of computational theory (at which we describe what a process must do and why, along with a logical strategy by which theprocess might be carried out), the level of representation and algorithms (dealing with how the theory might be implemented), and the level of processing device or hardware implementation (that considers how a particular represenation might be implemented in the available device)
- Marr contents some observable phenomenon may find explanation at only one level
- some failures of maps may be neurophysiological
- claims that computation level more fundamental; our neurophysiology evolved to meet our cognitive needs vs. our cognitive needs evolved to work with limited neurophysiology
Extensive examination of HumanVision as it applies to maps follows in chapter 3, How maps are seen, of MacEachren 1995, pp. 51 - 149
References
Castner, H. W. (1990). Seeking new horisons: A perceptual approach to geographic education. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Eastman, J. R. (1985). Cognitive models and cartographic design research. Cartographic Journal, 22(2), 95-101
Gibson, A. E. (1987) A model describing options for parallel color/data structuring. Technical papers, ACSM & ASPRS, 4, 97-106.
Kraak, M. J., and Ormeling, F. j. (1996) Cartography: visualization of spatial data. Dorchester, Dorset: Addison Wesley.
Kraak, M. J., and Brown, A. (2001). Web cartography. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
Peterson, M. P. (1987). The mental image in cartographic communication. Cartographic Journal, 24(1), 35-41.
Olson, J. M. (1979) Cognitive cartographic experimentation. Canadian Cartographer, 16, 34-44.