Self-Localization on Plan and Oblique Maps

Abstract

Subjects viewed projected slides of a downtown city area and attempted to find on a map the location at which they would be standing to see each view. Plan and oblique maps were used. As expected, performance using the plan map was significantly better when the map was used in alignment with the view than when it was misaligned. This issue is more complex with the oblique map, because S often has to choose between using the map in alignment with the view and using the map in its upright orientation. Performance was significantly better when the map was used in map-view alignment. However, Ss preferred to use the map in an upright-but-misaligned orientation rather than a non-upright-but-aligned orientation, despite the fact that their performance was much worse in the former case.