Jack W. Miller

Comparisons of Conventional “Subdued” to Vivid “Highly Contrasting” Color Schemes for Elementary School Maps: Report of An Experiment

Abstract The appropriateness of color schemes commonly used on maps for middle grade children has been inadequately researched. Most contemporary designs seem based more on adult conventions than on investigations to determine the factors that make maps interesting and readable to children. Based on four specially-prepared maps and 384 interview sessions with subjects enrolled in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of a public school system, the findings of this study provide some clear implications for those who either design or purchase maps for classroom use.

Toward resolution of the spatial puzzle

Driving through a strange city, even with map in hand, can result in frustration and disagreement. Some navigators rotate maps constantly to advise on right or left turns; others become completely disoriented and are soon hopelessly lost. Nor does it help morale to know that a few individuals always seem to know where they are and how to proceed to the next station along the route. After more than ten years of exploring these and other manifestations of spatial disability, we have become convinced that the origins of competency extend through the first decade of life and, perhaps, back to the moment of conception. But, the ultimate level of functioning and ease with which mature individuals acquire a spatial reasoning system varies remarkably. Moreover, left to nature, women experience greater difficulty and less success than do their male contemporaries. Even in an advanced technological society, with many tasks performed by specialized people or machines, proficiency in judging the speed of an approaching vehicle by the rate of its apparent increase in size, in visualizing and mentally rotating three-dimensional objects, and in understanding complex relationships presented in only two dimensions is highly important in daily life, the sciences, and the visual arts. At a higher level, men and women must be able to communicate their thoughts about object and space relationships through construction of sketches, drawings, and maps. Adults often seem oblivious to the many conceptual problems which children must solve. Every boy and girl is forced to puzzle through a succession of verbal, spatial, and emotional mysteries to achieve some acceptable level of mature equilibrium. That level of functioning is defined partially by the culture and the period of history in which the individual lives. Contemporary American culture, for example, places enormous emphasis on verbal competence. Parents initiate the process in their offspring by supplying linguistic labels for objects, actions, ideas, and feelings; thus, performance in the verbal realm is recognized and rewarded from the earliest age. While motor and spatial development also is valued, especially during that period when the child learns to crawl, walk, and explore-interest and encouragement are less constant and unreservedly shown. Educational institutions follow similar priorities when they encounter the child at four to six years of age. They express token concern for spatial learning, but symbolic language domi-