An examination of the difference between the interpretation of screen based and printed maps

AbstractThe development of the video disc and similar devices for storing pictures for subsequent display on computer screens has led to video images of conventional printed maps being used in a number of systems. Little consideration appears to have been given to the factors influencing the visual processing of such images. An experiment was carried out to determine if subjects' map reading ability is affected by this change of media. Results show that there was significantly better performance obtained when using conventional paper maps in comparison to their video images as displayed by the Domesday system.