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Maps are a main source of spatial information. The mental ability to organize spatial relations in person’s mind is referred to as spatial repesentation (¯yszkowska, 1996). Empirical studies show that individuals who use navigation applications with mobile maps have lower level of spatial knowledge acquisition than those working with paper maps (Aslan et al., 2006; Münzer et al., 2006; Ishikawa et al., 2008; Dillemuth, 2009; Willis et al., 2009; Field et al., 2011). The paper is a summary of preliminary research concerning differences in spatial knowledge acquisition based on paper and mobile maps in the mountainous environment. In the experiment 139 first year students of geography and biology were tested in class conditions. In the first part of the experiment, students became familiar with previously unknown mountain maps: a half of randomly selected students worked with a mobile map and the others with paper maps. The latter was a printed version of the mobile map in the highest accuracy level (scale 1:25 000). In the second part all students resolved the test referring to the mountain area represented on the maps. The analysis dealt with five spatial categories: distances, dimensions, directions, contour lines and topological relations. In all those categories students working with the mobile maps showed poorer acquisition of spatial knowledge. The highest differences appeared in questions referring to contour lines, directions and dimensions. These results confirm findings of other researchers. In conclusion potential reasons of these differences were discussed.
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