Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6 Trial 24: notice the 'target incident' label almost crossing the small harbour (from Hayes
et al.
2006
)
person, as it agrees with their spatial knowledge and recognition will follow.
However, there is a compression of distance towards the peripheral areas of
knowledge—both mentally and geographically. The other caveat is due to the
loosening of geometry due to topological representation. This also works on a
cognitive level.
Topological relationships are represented implicitly in the amended display by
having ambulance stations in their approximate geographical position (or as close
as the display screen allows—Fig.
2
c). When seen from a more precise Euclidean
metric point of view, the represented ''distances'', if one was to measure them,
would be extended in some cases and compressed in others; directions are only
loosely maintained (in a North/South/East/West cardinal direction sense—
described by Frank (
1996
)). This would seem to be a distortion of the agreement of
the display with the world view, but in fact topological representation is in accord
with the mental model; the upholding of PCP by spatial proximity need not be
driven by precise metric distances.
6.1.2 Connections
Connections (Wickens
1992
) are another approach to increasing display proximity
that involves using lines to place borders around related information or using lines
to connect related information. As such, they are used in the second sense in the
