Just as coarse static on a radio station interferes with a listener's ability to discern the music being played, so do coarse visual background patterns interfere with a map reader's ability to read words on a map. This problem is especially prevalent when small budgets limit the cartographer to the use of commercially available, pre-printed areal patterns for black and white reproduction. This study investigates the effects of dot arrangement and dot density of two purchased, areal dot patterns, type size, type orientation, and letter case on word reading accuracy when words and dot patterns are viewed simultaneously. The emphasis of the study was on dot arrangement, comparing the readability of words presented with a controlled "geometric" dot arrangement and then with an experimental "scallop" dot arrangement. The remaining variables, included to simulate an actual map situation, were also analyzed. The primary null hypothesis, that dot arrangement does not make a significant differance in word reading accuracy regardless of dot density, type size, type orientation, and letter case, was rejected on the basis of the analysis results.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/182775 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Nelson, Susan L. |
| Contributors | Showalter, Gerald R. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iv, 98 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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