Generalized, inaccurate,incomplete: How to comprehensively analyze sketch maps beyond their metric correctness

Sketch mapping is a method to investigate a person’s spatial perception and knowledge about the surrounding environment. While cartographic maps can be easily evaluated with respect to the represented features, map scale, and spatial accuracy, there still does not exist a comprehensive method to evaluate sketch maps. This paper aims to overcome this gap and proposes a sketch map analysis method that allows for analyzing the completeness, generalization and (qualitative) spatial accuracy of the sketched information in a three-step process. After describing the method, we illustrate how our computer-supported method performs in a use case with three sketch maps. Our approach may assist researchers in geography, psychology, and education to evaluate spatial knowledge in a systematic way independent of specific research questions and experimental scenarios.