Visual Information Processing During Cartographic Communication

Visual communication of cartographic displays requires that the reader attend to and extract information from a display during visual examination. The reader must process these visual inputs into concepts and also blend these fixation based inputs into a composite of the original image in order to come to some conception of the displayed message. The numerous information processing activities thought to accompany this visually induced synthesis are examined from a cartographic point of view with particular attention paid to the roles of Brief Visual Storage, Short Term Memory and Visual Conspicuity. The processes that occur during visual search reduce the efficiency of sensory information and influence the ability of the reader to correctly interpret the mapped message. Many of the limitations on the reader's perceptual abilities appear to be organismic rather than of a cognitive nature and, therefore, may suggest absolute limitations on the ability to communicate visual information. Finally, the implications of visual information processing for cartographic communication are explored.