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The Impact of Global/Local Bias on Task-Solving in Map-Related Tasks Employing Extrinsic and Intrinsic Visualization of Risk Uncertainty Maps

ABSTRACT The form of visual representation affects both the way in which the visual representation is processed and the effectiveness of this processing. Different forms of visual representation may require the employment of different cognitive strategies in order to solve a particular task; at the same time, the different representations vary as to the extent to which they correspond with an individual’s preferred cognitive style. The present study employed a Navon-type task to learn about the occurrence of global/local bias. The research was based on close interdisciplinary cooperation between the domains of both psychology and cartography. Several different types of tasks were made involving avalanche hazard maps with intrinsic/extrinsic visual representations, each of them employing different types of graphic variables representing the level of avalanche hazard and avalanche hazard uncertainty. The research sample consisted of two groups of participants, each of which was provided with a different form of visual representation of identical geographical data, such that the representations could be regarded as ‘informationally equivalent’. The first phase of the research consisted of two correlation studies, the first involving subjects with a high degree of map literacy (students of cartography) (intrinsic method: N = 35; extrinsic method: N = 37). The second study was performed after the results of the first study were analyzed. The second group of participants consisted of subjects with a low expected degree of map literacy (students of psychology; intrinsic method: N = 35; extrinsic method: N = 27).The first study revealed a statistically significant moderate correlation between the students’ response times in extrinsic visualization tasks and their response times in a global subtest (r = 0.384, p < 0.05); likewise, a statistically significant moderate correlation was found between the students’ response times in intrinsic visualization tasks and their response times in the local subtest (r = 0.387, p < 0.05). At the same time, no correlation was found between the students’ performance in the local subtest and their performance in extrinsic visualization tasks, or between their scores in the global subtest and their performance in intrinsic visualization tasks. The second correlation study did not confirm the results of the first correlation study (intrinsic visualization/‘small figures test’: r = 0.221; extrinsic visualization/‘large figures test’: r = 0.135). The first phase of the research, where the data was subjected to statistical analysis, was followed by a comparative eye-tracking study, whose aim was to provide more detailed insight into the cognitive strategies employed when solving map-related tasks. More specifically, the eye-tracking study was expected to be able to detect possible differences between the cognitive patterns employed when solving extrinsic- as opposed to intrinsic visualization tasks. The results of an exploratory eye-tracking data analysis support the hypothesis of different strategies of visual information processing being used in reaction to different types of visualization.