The Effect of Thematic Map Design on the Understanding of Geographical Facts

The purpose of this study is to provide practical evidences that thematic maps that do not comply with the thematic mapping principles can make it difficult for students to intuitively understand geographical facts and may even lead to inaccurate understanding of geographical facts. For this, a questionnaire was developed to evaluate the understanding of geographical facts by using thematic maps in secondary school textbooks, which did not comply with thematic mapping principles. The main findings were as follows. First, students showed difficulty in intuitive interpretation of data in thematic maps with color arrangements that do not follow data characteristics. Students also showed a tendency to interpret data in the light of contextual knowledge or personal experience rather than maps themselves. In addition, there is a possibility of incorrectly understanding the data due to color arrangements which does not fit the characteristics of the data. Second, in the case of the thematic map which does not reflect the critical value for the interpretation of the data in data classification, the students have difficulty in intuitively interpreting the data by attempting additional analysis. Finally, in the case of a thematic map displaying totals, the area difference of the basic spatial units in which the data are aggregated greatly influences the interpretation of the data, thereby causing the students to interpret the data represented on the map differently from the actual.