Elevating streets in urban topographic maps improves the speed of map-reading

A fast and accurate reading of maps is relevant for many human orientation, navigation, and wayfinding tasks. Autostereoscopic displays can visualize depth illusions in True-3D and allow map-makers to use the depth axis as an additional cartographic design parameter. This new design parameter has hardly been considered in empirical investigations in cartography. A previous study provided initial evidence that distribution of map information over different depth layers could bring advantages for the speed of map-reading. These results require further investigation. Research from cognitive psychology has demonstrated that the cognitive processing of map information could be enhanced by using linear features of the map graphics that subdivide the map into different sections (‘‘spatial chunks’’). These spatial chunks provide map readers an additional orientation pattern that supports information processing. Spatial judgements, for instance, can be made faster when spatial chunks are present in a map. It still remains an open question whether the True-3D accentuation of chunking features, such as dominant street representations in maps, can lead to additional advantages for an efficient transfer of map information. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of True-3D–accentuated streets for mapreading efficiency. To achieve this, an empirical study of the performances of 66 participants was conducted. In this study, a streets-in-True-3D condition (3D-Streets) was compared to a streets-in-2D condition (2D-Streets). Following previous research, map-reading efficiency was measured as both the mean percentage of correct counting tasks (hit rate) and the mean response time to solve a counting task correctly (speed). It was shown that the 3D-Streets condition significantly improved the speed but not the hit rate.