Children's Reactions to Maps and Aerial Photographs

Children's Reactions to Maps and Aerial PhotographsAuthor(s): P. F. DaleSource: Area, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1971), pp. 170-177Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20000571 .

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Children's reactions to maps and aerial photographs

P. F. Dale, University of Cambridge

Summary. An investigation of the accuracy with which children recognized images on a map as against an aerial photograph showed that more features were correctly identified on the latter. Children's responses were strongly influenced by the picture of the area formed from their past experience.

With the recent publication of a series of photomaps of Botswana by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys and with the introduction of orthophotography into this country, as pioneered at present by the Fairey Surveys Company, it is

pertinent to question the relative ease of interpretation of the conventional topographic map vis-a-vis the aerial photograph. Defenders of the conventional

map form claim that it is relatively more easy to identify features on the map whilst the interpretation of features on an aerial photograph is both complex and often ambiguous. The defenders of the photomap, whilst admitting that the problems of interpretation are transferred from the cartographer to the map user, claim that the increased information content of the aerial photograph out weighs the loss of information due to the greater complexity of the interpretation process. There are, of course, many other arguments for and against each map form, not the least important of which are economic, but the vital questions to be asked are whether the user can appreciate the new map form and whether the vertical aerial photograph is a satisfactory vehicle for communicating geographic information to the uninitiated. It was with the latter question in mind that a series of tests was carried out on a group of children in the 7-11 year age range.

None of the children had seen a large-scale map before and many of them had never seen any map other than the outlines of countries. None of them had seen a vertical aerial photograph. A map was compiled at the same scale as a photo graph and their response to each was recorded.

Testing the children The tests were carried out on a group of 40 children attending the primary school in a small village eight miles east of Cambridge. The total population of the village is around 700 with some 230 households. There are just over 60 children in the primary school, about half of whom were born in the village. The majority of the working population finds employment in or around Cam bridge either in labouring, in skilled or semi-skilled work or in professional practice. There are, however, a number of farmers and farm labourers who work in and around the village. The layout of the village is unusual in that there are three distinct clusters of houses shown as A, B, and C in Figure 1. The school, church and only shop in the village are located in area A so that children in area C have cause to visit area A, but children from area A rarely visit area C and in consequence their spatial sense of the village is quite different. The main focal area in the village, other than the school, is the recreation ground D.

170



Maps and Aerial Photographs 171

Figure 1. Areas within the village.

A map of the village at a scale of 1: 5000 was produced from vertical photo graphy at a scale of 1: 12,000 using a Wild B8 stereo plotting machine (Figure 2). One of the photographs was also enlarged to 1: 5000 scale and just covered the whole area of the village (Figure 3). The area was sufficiently flat and the photo graphy sufficiently close to the vertical for the differences in plan position between the map and aerial photograph enlargement to be insignificant. The scale of 1: 5000 was chosen in part because of the suitable clarity of buildings at this scale but also because it was the most convenient scale at which to show the whole village on one map sheet. Photography was available at a scale of

1: 6000 but it was decided not to use this as the obliquity of the view of some of

the buildings near the edge of the photography made their identification much more easy. The smaller scale photography was therefore enlarged so that a better comparison with the map could be achieved. In compiling the map, the information shown was restricted to roads, buildings, field boundaries, the two sides of a small stream running beside the village, and any wooded areas. The latter were shown with a stipple and the buildings were shown in solid black.

The map was printed in black, no names or orientation marks were shown and there was no legend to explain the meaning of the symbols. Similarly there were no keys to help in the identification of features on the aerial photograph.

The children were interviewed in pairs, partly so that any interaction between them might give some indication as to how they were approaching the problems but mainly to create a more relaxed atmosphere. Each pair was presented with both the map and the photograph and asked to identify what they were. All children realized that they were being presented with some form of map but



172 Maps and Aerial Photographs

Figure 2. Part of the map of the village at a scale of 1:5000.



Maps and Aeria7l Photographs 173

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Figure 3. Air photograph of the village at a scale of 1: 5000. Cambridge University Collection: copyright reserved.




only 14 out of the 40 children tested (i.e. 35 %) realized that the area was their own village. The children were then asked to interpret some of the symbols on

the map. Thirty-six children (90%) identified the regular parallel lines on the map as roads, 2 thought that they were rivers and 2 did not know. Thirty-nine children (98 %) recognized that the black rectangles on the map represented buildings and, having compared the map with the aerial photograph, 29 children (72 %) correctly interpreted the single lines on the map as field boundaries or hedgerows. All 40 children were able to pick out the roads on the photograph

and to pick out individual buildings. Thirty-two children (80 %) were able to offer the correct explanation as to why the fields appeared to be different colours on the photograph. The children were then told that they would be required to identify well-known places in the village and were asked to choose either the map or aerial photograph for the test and to choose whichever they thought would be most helpful in identifying these places. Twenty-nine children (72 %) preferred the aerial photograph whereas 1 1(28 %) thought that the map would be more easy. After the completion of the tests the same question was repeated on the assumption that there were to be more tests. As Table 1 shows, 17 children out of 29 stuck to their original preference

of the aerial photograph, whilst 10 changed their mind and thought that the

map would be better; 6 out of the 11 who originally stated their preference for the map stuck to their choice whereas 5 changed their mind and thought that

the photograph was more easy.

Table 1. Initial and final preferences for Map (M) and Aerial Photo graph (AP)

Number of children Initial pref. Final pref. X Y Z

AP AP 9 8 17 AP M 5 5 10 AP Either 1 1 2 M AP 3 2 5 M M 2 4 6

Col. X are children who were first tested on the map Y are children who were first tested on the photograph Z gives the total for each preference.

After the determinations of the children's initial preferences, tests were carried out to see how successfully each child could identify well-known places in the village. One child was given the map and the other in each pair was given the aerial photograph. Fifteen features had to be identified and the number of failures recorded. The child who was first tested on the map was then given the aerial photograph and vice versa. The test was then repeated. Control was exercised so that the children could not seek help from each other in answering the

questions and the orientation of the map or photograph was changed if there

appeared to be any attempt to memorize the positions of features from the first set of questions when they were repeated. The number of mistakes each child made together with the child's age and sex are given in Tables 2a and 2b.

The first of the fifteen objects that the children had to look for was any place at all that they could recognize on the map or photograph. Fifteen children

(38 %) could identify at least one place on the photograph whereas only 7 (18 %) could identify somewhere on the map. After this initial attempt at identification,




Age Sex 1st pref. Final pref. Map fail Photo fail Rev. map Rev. AP

6.5 G AP AP 13 9 9 7 7.2 B AP AP 9 5 5 4 7.3 G AP AP 10 1 7 1 7.3 B M M 11 9 9 9 7.4 G AP M 14 14 10 10 7.7 G AP M 5 2 1 1 7.8 G AP AP 9 10 5 6 8.0 G AP AP 6 3 2 2 8.1 G AP M/AP 5 3 2 0 8.3 G M AP 11 11 8 8 8.4 B AP M 1 1 0 0 8.5 B AP AP 4 0 2 0 8.5 G M AP 6 1 2 0 8.7 G AP AP 5 5 1 2 9.0 G AP AP 4 4 2 4 9.2 B AP AP 3 0 1 0 9.10 G AP M 4 3 1 2

10.3 B M AP 5 1 4 0 10.4 G AP M 5 0 0 0 11.0 B M M 1 0 0 0

Total 128 82 71 56

Table 2a. Preferences and Failures for children reading map first

Age Sex 1st pref. Final pref. Mapfail Photofail Rev. map Rev. AP

6.10 B AP AP 13 9 9 7 6.11 G AP M 9 10 7 8 7.3 B AP M 0 2 0 0 7.7 B AP AP 1 2 1 1 7.8 B M M 4 8 2 7 7.11 G AP M 12 14 9 10 8.0 B AP AP 14 11 11 8 8.3 G AP AP 13 14 9 10 8.9 G AP AP 11 6 7 3 8.11 B AP AP 2 0 1 0 9.2 G M AP 1 1 0 1 9.5 G AP AP 2 0 1 0 9.6 G M M 2 2 0 2 9.7 G M M 2 0 0 0 9.9 G AP M 0 2 0 1 9.9 B AP M/AP 0 0 0 0

10.5 B M M 1 1 0 0 10.7 B M AP 1 2 0 0 10.9 G AP AP 7 6 3 2 11.4 B AP M 0 0 0 0

Total 95 90 60 60

Table 2b. Preferences and Failures for children reading photograph first

Note: Rev. map and Rev. AP arethe revised figures for the number of failures to identify features when the results of the first four questions are excluded.




the children were all shown the road out of the village towards Cambridge and the High Street (in which both the school and church are located). They were then asked to identify such features as the recreation ground, the school and church, the local pub and similar well-known locations. Finally they were asked to identify their home and the roads that they would take in going to two neighbouring villages. As will be seen from Tables 2a and b, those who examined the map first did significantly better when it came to the aerial photograph (128 failures using the map as against 82 using the photograph) whereas those

who used the photo first made slightly more mistakes on the map (95 failures as against 90) although the difference is not significant. If, however, one disregards the answers to the first four questions in each test on the grounds that the children had to learn the symbolic language of each map form and hence were

more likely to make mistakes on these initial questions, then the results are much more even (71 against 56 and 60 against 60) and it appears that the children can learn the elementary language of both maps and aerial photographs with equal ease, although fewer mistakes were made initially on the photograph.

Mental maps and spatial intelligence A side aspect of the investigation was the opportunity for studying the approach of each child to the map or aerial photograph and the form and clarity of the

mental maps which each child had of the village. By carefully watching the way in which the children scanned the photograph or map and by listening to the comments that they made as they carried out their tasks, it was possible to find out what and how much each child knew of the geographical structure of the village. It was also apparent that anyone such as a teacher who had a detailed knowledge of a child and its pattern of behaviour around the village could predict how each child was likely to behave and the success that they would be likely to have.

Several tests were carried out on children up to the age of 6 but the results showed that in this age group any spatial sense is generally undeveloped: for example, when they were shown the position of the school on the map or photograph they were unable to identify the church which is adjacent to it. They seemed to have little or no memory of the features that they passed in walking to school. By 81-9 years of age the spatial sense seemed well developed although in terms of the speed with which features were picked out there was a significant difference between those children who are often to be seen roaming around the village and those who tend to spend much of their free time at home or with a neighbour.

It was also significant that those children who appeared to have the clearest mental maps and went beyond the questions asked to point out other features in the village, were those who spent much of their time roaming around. Further

more, this group without exception considered that the map was most useful for identifying places and were able to fill in by memory all of the blank areas on the map which others using the aerial photograph relied upon for clues to the location of features. This group was also quite unconcerned as to the orientation of the map and were able to read it from any angle. Those who travelled most by car were most concerned with getting the map ' the right way round ' al though they were not able to explain what they meant by this. Six children oriented the map as they would view the village on leaving their home; one who spent much of his time playing on a grassy area opposite his home insisted




on orienting the map as if he were looking at his front door, and another who resided in the centre of the village could only orient the map as if he were approaching the village by the road from his grandmother's house. Random tests on adults showed that they all tended to view the village from one particular angle which seemed to depend either on how their home faced on to the road opposite it, on how they most regularly approached the village from outside (this in general being from the direction of Cambridge) or how they remembered first approaching the village from outside. In general the children were much less interested in orientation and in particular those who rarely left the village showed least concern with which way the map was turned.

The approach which most children adopted once they had established at least one known point was to follow along the roads identifying points as they went along. Those that travelled by car followed the main roads, those that came by foot followed the footpaths, those that travelled to the neighbouring villages by bus took a detour along the bus route and those who rarely travelled around the village most often missed their way on the map. There is one public footpath through part of the village which acts as a short cut for those who are not en cumbered with a pram or push chair and those who walk to school accompanied by their mother and small brothers or sisters are unable to take this short cut. In consequence such children traced the longer route round on the map.

The results shown in Tables 2a and 2b were ranked into three categories of good, satisfactory and poor and these assessments were compared against the results of non-verbal IQ tests in which each child was categorized as above average, average and below average. A Spearman Rank Correlation between the two assessments gave a coefficient value of 0 5 which is significant at the 0 01 level. One may conclude, therefore, that the ability to read maps is related to spatial intelligence although patterns of social behaviour are also a key factor. It appeared during the tests that the prime difficulty for children in reading a map or aerial photograph was in forming a mental picture of the area which could be keyed in to the relevant map form. The more familiar the child was with the area, the more he tended to prefer a map, but where he was uncertain of the area, the photograph gave him greater confidence. The basic language of both forms appeared to be relatively simple to learn, especially for children over the age of 8. The preferences of the children tended towards the aerial photograph although the issue is by no means clear-cut.

Acknowledgement

I am greatly indebted to the Headmaster of the school, Mr J. C. Golightly, whose full co operation made the investigation possible and who helped with the testing of the children and in identifying their approach to the task.



Documents

Children's Reactions to Maps and Aerial Photographs