Directing Wayfinders With Maps: The Effects of Gender,Age, Route Complexity,and Familiarity With the Environment

Abstract

The participants were 360 Canadian undergraduates. After receiving written scenarios involving a campus visitor seeking direction to a nearby destination (simple route) or a distant destination (complex route), they drew maps to that destination. The authors varied the visitor's gender, age, and familiarity with campus. They analyzed the content of the students' maps in terms of cardinal indicators (compass grid, correct north-south orientation), landmarks, labeled buildings, directional arrows, and supplemental written directions. The men tended to provide more cartographically complete maps than the women, though there were no gender differences in use of landmarks or labeled buildings. The men were significantly more inclined than the women to take visitor characteristics into account, providing more complete maps to visitors navigating complex routes, to newcomers, and to older visitors who were unfamiliar with the campus. The men had more confidence that their maps would successfully lead visitors to their destinations. Route complexity led to greater use of landmarks, labeled buildings, and cardinal indicators. The participants' self-reported familiarity with campus had little effect on their direction giving, except for a greater use of labeled buildings in maps.     

Gender and Regional Differences in Spatial Referents Used in Direction Giving

This study examined gender and regional differences in spatial referents used in giving route directions. In response to an Internet survey, participants (primarily white and highly educated) provided samples of route directions to a target destination in their home area. Only directions from those living in the United States were analyzed. Women referred more often than men to buildings as landmarks, whereas men referred more often than women to cardinal directions. Both women and men referred more often to cardinal directions if they reported that they lived in the Midwest/West than in the Northeast/South, or if they lived in areas where the roads were arranged in a gridlike pattern. The findings suggest that women and men differ in the type of spatial referents they use in giving directions, but that direction giving in both genders is affected by the environment in which they live.     

Site Distance, Gender, and Knowledge of Geographic Sites

The primary purpose of the experiments presented in this report was to study systematically the geographic site-name, associative memory of male and female college students (predominantly White and middle class) for locations that varied in distance: local, national, and international sites. In the first experiment, participants were to match listed names of campus buildings and local cities with their marked locations on maps. In the second experiment, under a site-name memory, a site-name/map-aid memory, and a map-aid/name-aid memory (site-name associative memory) condition, participants were to recall or match as many of the 50 US states and the 25 largest US cities as they could. In the third experiment, the participants were to match a listed grouping of the world’s largest bodies of water and continents, a set of countries, and the world’s largest cities, with their marked locations on maps. In the first experiment, men matched significantly more local cities than did women; in the second experiment, men recalled significantly more of the cities under the site-name/map-aid and the map-aid/name-aid memory conditions than did women; and in the third experiment, men matched significantly more sites on all three maps than did women. The absence of gender differences for campus buildings and states may have been a product of the participants having had extensive opportunities to learn these sites. That men displayed greater knowledge of cities and international sites suggests that they have a greater interest in geography than do women. Because of the limitations of the methodology used, the gender differences favoring men could not be interpreted as primarily a product of nature or of nurture, and thus it was concluded that they were a joint product of nature and nurture.     

Effect of Landmark Type on Route Memory in Unfamiliar Homogenous Environment

Landmarks are objects that have salience that is either visual, semantic or structural. Recent researches have pointed out observer characteristics that make a landmark salient. These have been termed cognitive salience. This study investigated the effects of two components of cognitive salience, familiarity and degree of recognition, on route memory. The first experiment examined the effect of familiarity of landmark and ease with which it could be recognized (degree of recognition) on remembering a route, while in the second experiment only degree of recognition was varied while holding familiarity constant. Two types of landmarks (text and image) were shown to participants who had to recollect course taken at decision points during wayfinding tasks. Participants were shown navigation videos generated using Squareland Model. The videos had six decision points each having one landmark, and the participants were required to indicate the direction of the turn when the landmarks were shown again. Results showed that pictorial landmarks (high degree of recognition) were better facilitators of route memory than textual landmarks (low degree of recognition). Results also indicated that familiar buildings served as better landmarks than unfamiliar buildings. In the second experiment another level of degree of recognition (medium) was added and compared with high and low levels. Results confirmed the findings of the first experiment with high degree of recognition being the best facilitator followed by medium and low degree of recognition. Our findings lend empirical support to the concept of cognitive salience proposed by Caduff and Timpf (Cogn Process 9:249–267, 2008) and highlight the importance of observer characteristics in determining what constitutes as good landmark.     

A meta-analytic review of gender variations in adults' language use: talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech.

Three separate sets of meta-analyses were conducted of studies testing for gender differences in adults' talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Across independent samples, statistically significant but negligible average effects sizes were obtained with all three language constructs: Contrary to the prediction, men were more talkative (d = -.14) than were women. As expected, men used more assertive speech (d = .09), whereas women used more affiliative speech (d = .12). In addition, 17 moderator variables were tested that included aspects of the interactive context (e.g., familiarity, gender composition, activity), measurement qualities (e.g., operational definition, observation length), and publication characteristics (e.g., author gender, publication source). Depending on particular moderators, more meaningful effect sizes (d > .2) occurred for each language construct. In addition, the direction of some gender differences was significantly reversed under particular conditions. The results are interpreted in relation to social-constructionist, socialization, and biological interpretations of gender-related variations in social behavior.     

Sex differences in landmark learning by children aged 5 to 12 years

Previous research has shown that men and boys learn routes faster and with fewer errors than do women and girls. Research with adults suggests that men use Euclidean cues when learning a route, whereas women use landmark-based strategies. The strategies used by children have received little study. In Exp. 1, 50 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown a map that contained only landmarks (no streets or roads) and were asked to learn a route consisting of 23 of the landmarks. The children used a pointer to trace the route on the map to a criterion of two successive trials without errors. The performance of boys and girls did not differ significantly on this route-learning task on three measures (number of trials to reach criterion, total time to reach criterion, and total number of errors). In Exp. 2, 52 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown the same map as in Exp. 1 and were asked to learn a route consisting of 12 landmarks. The children traced the route by picking pictures of landmarks in the correct order from a stack of cards with pictures of landmarks on them. Girls made significantly fewer errors than boys on this route-learning task in Exp. 2, and a significantly larger number of girls than boys completed the task. None of the boys in the 5- to 6-yr.-old age group learned the route. When Euclidean cues were minimized in Exp. 2, boys made more errors and took as much time as girls to reach the criterion of two successive correct trials.     

Eye tracking, strategies, and sex differences in virtual navigation

Reports of sex differences in wayfinding have typically used paradigms sensitive to the female advantage (navigation by landmarks) or sensitive to the male advantage (navigation by cardinal directions, Euclidian coordinates, environmental geometry, and absolute distances). The current virtual navigation paradigm allowed both men and women an equal advantage. We studied sex differences by systematically varying the number of landmarks. Eye tracking was used to quantify sex differences in landmark utilisation as participants solved an eight-arm radial maze task within different virtual environments. To solve the task, participants were required to remember the locations of target objects within environments containing 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 landmarks. We found that, as the number of landmarks available in the environment increases, the proportion of time men and women spend looking at landmarks and the number of landmarks they use to find their way increases. Eye tracking confirmed that women rely more on landmarks to navigate, although landmark fixations were also associated with an increase in task completion time. Sex differences in navigational behaviour occurred only in environments devoid of landmarks and disappeared in environments containing multiple landmarks. Moreover, women showed sustained landmark-oriented gaze, while men's decreased over time. Finally, we found that men and women use spatial and response strategies to the same extent. Together, these results shed new light on the discrepancy in landmark utilisation between men and women and help explain the differences in navigational behaviour previously reported.     

Properties of cognitive maps constructed from texts

Subjects in three experiments read texts describing the locations of landmarks in a fictitious town. Later they drew sketch maps and verified sentences describing the relative locations of the landmarks. We predicted that subjects would develop mental models of the town that were organized around important landmarks (“anchors”), as are cognitive maps constructed through real-world navigation. More specifically, we expected that landmarks used in the text as reference points for describing the locations of some other landmarks would emerge as anchors in the subjects’ cognitive maps and would consequently be recalled more accurately. Results showed that subjects represented such reference-point landmarks more accurately than they did the locations of other landmarks. This effect was independent of: (1) the perspective from which the text was written (route or survey); (2) whether or not a map was present at learning; (3) the order of information in the text (linear or anchors-first), and (4) the amount of information available to the subjects while drawing sketch maps (the full text, the landmark names only, or no information).     

Turn right or turn left? Heuristic of adhering to the direction of destination

It has been found that humans not only tend to avoid the middle routes and prefer the peripheral routes among multiple choices, but also rely on the ‘initial segment strategy’ to select the route. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic which humans apply during route selection: Participants prefer the route whose initial direction lies in the direction of their final destination, while avoiding the route whose initial direction does not. Four maps were designed. The pathways, on different maps, constituted a parallelogram, a rectangle and a square. Pedestrians were instructed to select a route from an origin to a destination on one of the maps. The results confirm the application of the newly proposed heuristic. Other possible factors, such as handedness, route angles and occurrence of turns were excluded. Moreover, the heuristics of deferring decision and relying on initial straightness are not supported. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sex differences in route learning by children.

Differences between men and women have been reported with respect to route-learning, but sex differences in children on these and related tasks have not been found. In this study, 51 children ages 5 to 12 years were required to learn a route on a map to criterion and then asked to recall landmarks on that route. Boys made significantly fewer errors and took less time and fewer trials to reach criterion in learning the route, and girls recalled more landmarks than boys. Significant main effects for age were also noted on all measures of route learning and landmark recall. These results suggest that the patterns of route learning that have been ascribed to women and men are present in girls and boys.     

Does Gender Affect Visiting a World Heritage Site?

ABSTRACT

The city of Guimarães in Portugal is a place of strong symbolic and cultural significance, and the nomination of its historical center as a World Heritage Site in 2001 enhanced its tourism potential. This study presents the results of a survey conducted in 2010 and 2011 to capture the profile and motivations of tourists visiting Guimarães as a cultural tourism destination. The study addressed two main issues: whether males and females have similar or different preferences in choosing the city as their destination, and whether there are gender differences in the perception of the attributes of Guimarães. A better understanding of the gendered nature of the destination is a valuable cue for shaping products and services according to visitors’ preferences. The results suggest that both men and women are aware of the main elements responsible for the city's World Heritage status. That the destination is a Heritage Site that also offers the opportunity to tour the region has a significant positive effect on male tourists’ choice of Guimarães. Regarding the perceived attributes of the city, results indicate minor gender differences with one exception: Women expressed more apprehension than men regarding the perceived security of the destination.     

Social Connectedness,Social Appraisal,and Perceived Stress in College Women and Men

This study examined the effects of social connectedness, social appraisal of the campus climate, and perceived stress of college women and men. Drawing from self‐verification theory, social appraisal was hypothesized to mediate the effects of connectedness on perceived stress. Two hundred and fourteen college students were surveyed. Results support a partial mediation effect for women. Men, however, were more likely to negatively appraise the campus climate, and social connectedness was more negatively related to perceived stress for men than for women. Results are interpreted according to gender differences in independent and interdependent self‐construal. The need to clearly define and measure social connectedness and social appraisal is also discussed. Counseling implications focus on the promotion and assessment of connectedness on campus.     

Elimination of sex difference in direction giving

Past studies have shown that men provide more cardinal information and mileage estimates than women when describing routes learned from maps. In the current study, we examined whether this sex difference would persist if more legends were added to the maps. The participants looked at maps for 3 min and then wrote down directions from memory. Their usage of cardinal directions, mileage estimates, landmarks, and left–right directions was coded and analyzed. The results showed that men and women used cardinal directions equally for the 4-legend maps, whereas men used more cardinal directions than women for 1-legend maps as shown previously. Our results suggested that subtly drawing attention to cardinal directions successfully eliminated the sex difference in usage, although a different pattern was seen for mileage estimates. The underlying mechanisms are discussed.     

Gender and social relationships among the never-married

This research explores the social networks among the growing numbers of men and women who have never married. We use a representative sample of 193 never-married men and 217 never-married women, of whom 73% of the men and 60% women of the were white and 16% of the men and 20% of the women were black. We hypothesize that single women have a more extensive social network than do men. Second, we investigate the impact of gender roles and norms of filial responsibility and selected sociodemographic variables upon social interaction by gender. Our findings indicate that gender differences are not as anticipated: (1) while never-married women interact more frequently with relatives than do never-married men, no differences were noted among friendship or neighborhood networks; (2) time spent in social interaction was more likely to differ by marital status than it was by gender; (3) compared to married persons, the never-married are overrepresented in the extreme categories of interaction, both isolated and very active; (4) gender role ideology and filial responsibility did not significantly predict social interaction for either men or women, with the exception that, among never-married men, those with lower expectations of filial responsibility spent more time with friends.The National Survey of Families and Households was funded by a grant (HD21009) from the Center for Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The survey was designed and carried out at the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison under the direction of Larry Bumpass and James Sweet. The fieldwork was done by the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University. The original collectors of the data do not bear any responsibility for the analyses or the interpretations presented here.