Abstract
This study investigated the effects of domain-specific geographical and meteorological knowledges and general visual-spatial abilities on the comprehension of simple weather maps. Thirty participants with low meteorological knowledge and 16 with high knowledge, were both administered tests of geographical and meteorological knowledges, four kinds of visual-spatial abilities, and the task of weather map comprehension. The results indicated that the participants having high meteorological knowledge generally showed better performance at both of the meteorological test and the task of weather map comprehension than participants having low knowledge. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the total score and the basic-level score of the task of weather map comprehension were explained by the meteorological knowledge about 46% and 31%, respectively. Additionally flexibility of closure as the one of the general visual-spatial abilities, together with the meteorological knowledge, contributed 58% to the advanced-level score of the task of weather map comprehension. For the low knowledge participants, speed of closure was significantly important to resolve the task of weather map comprehension. It is suggested that the meteorological knowledge is crucially important, and the flexibility of closure may aid, for the comprehension of simple weather map.
