| Abstract: | The purpose of this research was to examine the interaction between color and the visual processes people use to search choropleth maps. Two experiments were performed in which subjects searched hypothetical choropleth maps displayed on a cathode-ray tube to determine whether a particular (target) boundary formed by two adjacent polygons filled with different colors was present. In experiment 1, the four pairs of colors used to form the target boundaries were red-blue, green-yellow, green-magenta, and cyan-magenta. In experiment 2, red-green, blue-yellow, red-orange, and cyan-orange were the color pairs used toform the target boundaries. The target boundary colors, target-background discriminability, target boundary location, and the number and types of boundaries on the maps had a significant effect on search time. The results of both experiments indicated that subjects were using a parallel search process followed by a serial search process as described by Cave and Wolfe's (1990) guided search theory. The relative mean search times for the various colored target boundaries was best explained by the opponent process theory. |
