Cross-cultural differences in figure–ground perception of cartographic stimuli

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an empirical study investigating cultural differences in the visuospatial perception and cognition of qualitative point symbols shown on reference maps. We developed two informationally equivalent symbol sets depicted on identical reference maps that were shown to Czech and Chinese map readers. The symbols varied in visual contrast with respect to the base map. Our empirical results suggest the existence of cultural influences on map reading, but not in the predicted direction based on the previous cross-cultural studies. Our findings stress the importance of considering the cultural background of map readers, especially when designing reference maps aimed for global online use.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural differences
• map reading
• visualization
• visual perception
• user testing

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the following collaborators: FEI Teng (technical coordinator, technical implementation, organization of students), WANG-ANGSUESSER Xu (translations, test testing, test preparation & supervision), LU Yi (test testing) HU Guang (technical implementation), ZHOU Ye (organization of students), LIU Chang, WANG Kun, YING Weijun, ZHAN Wanxin (students who organized other students), and at the Laboratory Center (responsible for the computer lab): ZHAN Qinming (head), LÜ Xiuqin, LIU Yongqiong.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been supported by funding from Masaryk University under the grant No.MUNI/M/0846/2015, “Influence of cartographic visualization methods on the success of solving practical and educational spatial tasks.”