Cognitive Process in Interpreting the Contour-Line Portrayal of Terrain Relief.

摘要

Although military map users must be capable of interpreting all classes of features portrayed on topographic maps, the interpretation of the contour-line portrayal of terrain relief (traditionally referred to as contour interpretation) is clearly the most difficult and most important part of the map-interpretation task. The objectives of this research are to (a) gain a more thorough understanding of the fundamental cognitive processes underlying one type of contour-interpretation task, and (b) apply this knowledge in defining improved strategies for teaching this important skill. A major conclusion drawn from this research is that training on the cognitive strategy employed by the expert subjects would yield an immediate substantial increase in the position-fixing skil of military map users who have completed a traditional course of instruction in map interpretation. Moreover, it seems highly probable that both expert and non-expert map users would benefit from training designed to increase their ability to visualize the real-world appearance of a landform portrayed with contour lines and to visualize the contour-line portrayal of a visible landform.