The effect of gender and spatial abilities on map use preferences and performance in road selection tasks (original) (raw)

In this study, we investigate the effect of individual and group differences on the efficiency and effectiveness of map-based decision making under varying map use contexts. Specifically, we examine potential interrelationships between spatial ability (individual difference) and gender (group difference) for a map-based road selection task under varying time pressure scenarios. We first report on the results of an experiment involving human map display and map interaction tool preferences, based on people's background differences. This is followed by results from a second experiment where we assessed participants' response accuracy and confidence for the same map use context and tasks. We indeed find significant relationships between user background, map type, and inference making tasks. We also replicate the known phenomenon of male over-confidence in spatial decision-making, specifically for a road selection task under severe time pressure. Our results also demonstrate that commonly used classification and aggregation methods to study participant backgrounds can influence the outcomes of empirical map use studies and their respective interpretations. INTRODUCTION Previous empirical research in cartography has looked at how the design of maps might influence human spatio-temporal inference and decision making (Fabrikant and Goldsberry 2005, Rosenholtz et al. 2005, Reichenbacher and Swienty 2007). However, only few researchers in cartography and geovisualization have studied how individual spatial abilities or differences in background and training in groups of people might affect the effectiveness and efficiency of how people make spatio-temporal decisions with map displays (Lloyd and Bunch 2005, Lloyd and Bunch 2008, Cohen and Hegarty 2007). In fact, relatively little is known about the potential interaction effects of individual differences in spatial ability, gender, age, etc., with other commonly known map use factors, such as the map purpose and usage context, or the spatio-temporal inference task type. In this paper, we first report on an empirical study on how individual differences in spatial abilities might influence map use preferences for a classic road selection task (task type) under varying time pressure scenarios (map use context). We studied which map display types (e.g., satellite images or road maps) and which map interaction tools (e.g., zooming, panning, tilting, and rotating) people might prefer for this context. In a follow up experiment, we systematically assessed people's map use performance, again on a road selection task, similar to the first experiment. We evaluated participants' response accuracy and confidence in their decisions for three time pressure scenarios. In both experiments, we were specifically interested in exploring whether and how people's mental rotation abilities (individual difference factor) and gender (group difference factor) might affect map type preferences and participants' performance under varying time pressure conditions. The potential interaction between all controlled factors is also considered. RELATED WORK The study of individual and group differences, also coined differential psychology, dates back to Charles Darwin in the 19th century. It is based on the assumption that each person is in certain respects either "like all other people" (i.e., the entire population), "like some other people" (i.e., member of a group of similar people), or "like no other person" (i.e., a unique individual) (Kluckhohn and Murray 1953). Studies of individual differences (i.e., uniqueness) distinguish humans by parameters that can be measured on individuals, such as IQ scores, language ability, or spatial ability. Studies of group differences on the other hand, emphasize the aspect of difference across homogeneous groups of (similar) individuals (i.e., age groups, gender, or expertise). Gender differences in cognitive abilities have been studied by psychologists in various fields, ranging from epidemiology to the assessment of linguistic skills. For example, Weiss et al. (2003) have empirically confirmed the longstanding assumptions that males have advantages in visuo-spatial abilities and map reading, while females have advantages in verbal tasks. Previous empirical studies do not show conclusive differences in performance between males and females in GIS-and map-related tasks (Albert and Golledge 1999). However, in a memory-location task, Lloyd and Bunch found female accuracy advantages Wilkening, J. and Fabrikant, S.I.