Cognitively inspired and perceptually salient graphic displays for efficient spatial inference making

Developing a visual hierarchy in map displays that is congruent with thematic levels of relevance is a fundamental cartographic design task. Cartographers employ a set of visual variables (e.g., size, color hue, color value, orientation, etc.) for 2-D, static maps to systematically match levels of thematically relevant information to a perceptual hierarchy based on figure–ground relationships. In this article, we empirically investigate the relationship of thematic relevance and perceptual salience in static weather map displays. We are particularly interested in how novices’ viewing patterns are modified when thematically relevant items are made perceptually more salient through design. In essence, we are asking whether perceptually salient elements draw novice viewers’ attention to thematically relevant information, whether or not users have domain knowledge. In a factorial experiment, we ask novice participants to evaluate the wind direction in weather maps before and after training all participants on meteorological principles. Our empirical results suggest that display design (i.e., saliency) does not influence the accuracy of response, whether participants have prior knowledge or not (i.e., training). Analysis of the eye-movement patterns, however, suggests that display design does affect viewing behavior and response time. These findings provide rare empirical evidence for generally accepted design practices within the cartographic community (e.g., the effects of visual variables). We chose weather map displays as one typical example of commonly used maps for our study, but the methods employed are generic enough to be applicable to any spatial display (static or interactive) that might be produced by GIScientists, cartographers, geographic information system (GIS) practitioners, and others. Key Words: empirical study, eye-movement analysis, geographic visualization, spatial inference, weather maps

Image Themes and Frames in US Print News Stories about Climate Change

Research on frames in climate change (CC) news coverage has advanced substantially over the past decade, but the emerging understanding of the framing role of visual imagery that often accompanies news texts remains fragmented. We report on a set of image frames identified through content analysis of 350 images associated with 200 news articles from 11 US newspaper and magazine sources from 1969 through late 2009. We reliably identified and quantified the occurrence of 118 image themes. We then hierarchically clustered the themes based on their co-occurrence in images to identify an integrated framework of 42 image frames. We highlight frames associated with particular types of images (e.g., photographs and maps) or geographic regions. From among the full set of frames, we identify 15 that commonly appear in US CC news imagery and discuss the ways in which image frames make salient (or render invisible) particular categories of people, geographic regions, aspects of science, and spheres of activity

Image Themes and Frames in US Print News Stories about Climate Change

© 2014 Taylor & Francis Research on frames in climate change (CC) news coverage has advanced substantially over the past decade, but the emerging understanding of the framing role of visual imagery that often accompanies news texts remains fragmented. We report on a set of image frames identified through content analysis of 350 images associated with 200 news articles from 11 US newspaper and magazine sources from 1969 through late 2009. We reliably identified and quantified the occurrence of 118 image themes. We then hierarchically clustered the themes based on their co-occurrence in images to identify an integrated framework of 42 image frames. We highlight frames associated with particular types of images (e.g., photographs and maps) or geographic regions. From among the full set of frames, we identify 15 that commonly appear in US CC news imagery and discuss the ways in which image frames make salient (or render invisible) particular categories of people, geographic regions, aspects of science, and spheres of activity