in this issue MESSAGES 1 MESSAGE FROM THE GUEST FEATURED ARTICLES EDITOR Males, Females, and Maps: Evaluating Spatial Encoding 3 Strategies Over the next year Cartographic Elisabeth S. Nelson Perspectives (CP) will have a series Adjusting and Separating Map Colors Using PhotoShoprn 19 of guest editors. We plan on Judy M. Olson having a permanent editor by the beginning of 1998, but in the CARTOGRAPHY BULLETIN BOARD 25 interim we are fortunate to have several NACIS members assuming MAP LIBRARY BULLETIN BOARD 26 the responsibilities of publishing CP. Future guest editors will REVIEWS include Michael Peterson and How to Lie With Maps 35 Gregory Chu, while James Carter reviewed by Karen M. Trifonoff and Ute Dymon will guest edit a special issue focusing on Map Use. Atlas de Suelos de la Republica Argentina 37 Jim Anderson has graciously reviewed by Nicholas Dunning accepted the Assistant Editor's job and will be responsible for all Atlas Estadistico Republica Argentina 38 production facets of CP. Melissa reviewed by Robert Sou th Lamont (Penn State) has assumed the job of gathering and assimilat­ Geoscope 40 ing all the material that is posted reviewed by Mark D. Schwartz on the map library bulletin board. Mark your calendars for our NACIS NEWS 41 next annual meeting, NACIS XVII in Lexington, Kentucky, from CARTOGRAPHIC EVENTS 43 October 1-4. We should have a great meeting, just like we did in ANNOUNCEMENTS 44 San Antonio. Over one hundred participants enjoyed the hospital­ NACIS XVII CALL FOR PAPERS 45 ity of one of the more charming and scenic Texas cities last Octo- six years to keeping our finances seemingly infinite possibilities of cartographic perspecti7.1es solvent as Treasurer. Both served high resolution dynamic map NACIS with a high level of excel­ displays that one could produce lence and were commended for using DVD. The research potential their work by the NACIS Board at in cartography using this device is the San Antonio meeting staggering. Yet, will we adequately journal of the As a member of NACIS you document our cartographic l\iorth American Cartog raphic probably noticed that your dues discoveries? Information Society for 1997 have gone up. At the Cartographic Perspectives is the Annual Business Luncheon in San ideal forum for publishing innova­ C111•..;/ / dit11r: Antonio NACIS members passed a tive research. Even though we do l>r. Keith\\!. [~ ice resolution to increase dues for all not have a permanent editor th.is DL'pt. o f Cl'ogr,1pl1\ & CL'olog\' regular members, students, and year, we still have a very accom­ Uni\'l• rsil\' of \Visl'.-Sll•\'l' ns l'oint institutions. The main reason dues plished and capable Editorial Sll'\'t•ns Poin t. \VI 5-l-lH 1 Board. Submission can easily be ( 7 1:; ) 1-lh-2()29 were increased is to pay for the f,1\: (7 15) 1-lh-.1172 cost of Cartographic Perspectives. made to the Interim Editor or Mike l'-111,1i I: k ril'l' " 'u \\' s p .l'd LI Both paper and printing costs in Peterson during this coming year. 1996 rose to the point that the old (geolib@cwis. unomaha.ed u) lb~i~/1111/ lditur: $28 membership fee wasn't even / 11111 es K A 11tlerso 11, / r. covering the cost of CP. The Keith Rice Fl~b\C l·lorid,1 St,1 ll' Lni\Prsit\' general consensus of the members Past President and Guest Editor, CP T,1l "1h,1ssel', Fl . 12106--l!i I ~ in attendance in San Antonio was (90-l ) (,-l-l-2881 that $42 was still a bargain for f,1\: (90-l) h-l-l-7160 membership in a professional abollt the cover l'-111'1 i I: j,111ders11 "·111,1 i IL'r. is L1 .1•d LI organization with a professional journal. It should be many years ISS\J I 0-ti'i -'IOl'i'i before another dues increase is ( ·.1rl< 1gr.iph i, l \•rspL'Cti\ L's needed. i-.. publislwd tri.111nualh· Potentially, one way to prevent another dues increase for quite awhile is to increase NACIS membership. If you are a professor, sign up some students. If you are ber. We also were blessed with the an entrepreneur, librarian, lab fellowship and camaraderie of technician, or government em­ faculty and students from South­ ployee, talk to your colleagues The cover was produced and designed by Steven R west Texas State University. who are not members - and sign Holloway, cartographer and Denn.is Fitzsimons, long-time them up! Membership forms can geographer at the University of NACIS member, fellow University be found in the back of CP, or just Montana i.n Missoula, Montana. He of Kansas alumnus, and outstand­ give Chris Baruth (1-800-558-8993) delights in making maps with blank places, for what we do not see and know. ing teacher of cartography was our a call and he'll send you some The series from which it is taken can be ma.in host and did a superb job. forms. found at: http://higuma.wru.umt.edu/ Conference attendees praised all Finally, it is a curious phenom­ posters/default.shtml. In addition, it aspects of the San Antonio meet­ enon that article submission to should be noted that this is a population density map using information from the ings, and one and all enjoyed the cartographic journals is down and 1990 census in six classes of density. The Saturday evening barbecue. We yet more research and experimen­ map differs from typical choropleth should have another grand meet­ tation with maps is occurring than census maps in that the mapping units ing in Kentucky! at any other time in written are independent from the enumeration units. They have applied land cover, land As former NACIS president, I history. Consider, for example, the ownership and slope criteria to create the also want to thank two officers advent of Digital Video Disc new mapping units. The result is a far who recently finished their terms (DVD). It has a storage space of more accurate indication of the disper­ in office. Henry Castner did a 8.7 gigabytes and will allow one to sion of population in the west where there are significant elevation, land marvelous three-year job as Vice­ create a true multimedia presenta­ cover, and land ownership patterns President, President, and Past­ tion with high definition sound affecting population distribution. President, while Ed Hall devoted and full-motion video. There are Number 25, 1-.11119% cartographic perspectives 3 Males, Females, and Maps: Evaluating Spatial Encoding Strategies Cognitive research suggests that there is a difference in the spatial Elisabeth 5. Nelson abilities of males and females. Results of studies that examine way­ Department of Geography finding skills indicate that the differences found may be linked to a San Diego State University variation in the types of strategies used in completing spatial tasks. The San Diego, CA 92182 purpose of this study was to assess the influence of gender on different strategies for encoding spatial information in a map context. An experi­ ment was conducted in which subjects studied a map presented to them using one of three encoding strategies: (1) a control strategy in which they viewed the map as a static representation, (2) a landmark-based strategy in which they viewed a dynamic sequencing of the map that began with landmark locations and built over time to include all map components, and (3) a path-based strategy in which they viewed a dynamic sequencing of the map that began with path locations and built over time to include all map components. Following this study phase, subjects completed a series of map recognition tasks where they indicated whether a presented map was the same as or different from the map they had originally studied. Test maps that differed from the memorized map were modified by either replacing, displacing, or reversing the perspective of a map object. Results indicated that while encoding strategy played a significant role in determining how accu­ rately subjects could perform the recognition task, gender did not significantly influence how well any particular strategy worked for encoding map-based spatial information. The acquisition of spatial information from a map requires the use of INTRODUCTION se\·eral intricate cognitive processes. Scientists' knowledge of these processes comes primarily from studies conducted in psychology, where researchers have accumulated over fifty years worth of studies on human spatial abilities. Out of this wealth of research, one broad and increasingly challenged generalization is the finding that males are more skilled at executing spatial tasks than females (Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974; Self, et 11 al., 1992; Halpern, 1992). Several of these studies have further suggested ••• one broad and increasingly that the differences found between males and females are linked to the challenged generalization is the types of strategics they use when completing spatial tasks. Results of these finding that males are more studies show that females tend to rely more on verbal-analytic strategies, in skilled at execu ting spatial tasks which spatial stimuli are encoded as discrete objects. Males, on the other than females. 11 hand, are more likely to focus on the geometric properties of the environ­ ment and encode all spatial stimuli as one interconnected object - a spatial­ holistic strategy (Cooper, 1976; Paivio, 1986; Galea and Kimura, 1993; Lanca and Kirby, 1995). Are these results applicable to encoding spatial information specifically from maps? Research conducted on the environmental acquisition of spatial knowledge is insightful. Results from several of these studies have pro­ duced two competing theories of spatial knowledge acquisition in the environment.