One of the objectives of our study is to study how people learn about the city, in particular, what kind of knowledge, environmental images, beliefs and perceptions people form about the urban environment. These shape the individual's cognitive or mental map. In other words we are going to study individual's mental maps and how mental maps evolve over time.
Coined in 1948 by Edward C. Tolman, the term cognitive map refers to the internal mental representation of environmental information. The broadest definition of this term is an internal model of the world in which we live. Everybody possesses his/her mental map. A mental map reflects an individual's perspectives such as the individual's perception of, beliefs of, and preferences for different places.
It is logical that our mental maps are formed over time while we are learning about the environment, primarily trough travel experience and wayfinding. It explains variation in the nature of cognitive maps between individuals.
For example, people who are shopping oriented will have more detailed image about different shopping locations in a city while people who like regularly go out and visit bars will know all cool bars with best beers. Thus mental maps are dynamic, context dependent and differ from individual to individual.
On the basis of existing theories about the structure of the cognitive map we assume that mental representation contains hierarchically organised spatial knowledge about the urban environment including landmarks and nodes, routes, configurations of routes and locations. Urban planner and author Kevin Lynch, in his most famous work The Image of the City (1960), gives the following definition of nodes and landmarks.
'Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another. …..'
'Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign, store or mountain... '
Geographers, urban planners and designers use mental maps of individuals to understand how people order the space around them. The maps can be collected by asking for directions to certain locations, by asking someone to draw a sketch map of an area of interest or by asking a person to name a certain location, etc.
For understanding how people learn and remember the city we are going to use some of these techniques and collect data about:
(i) individual's awareness of nodes and landmarks,
(ii) individual's awareness about location characteristics,
(iii) individual's knowledge about spatial distribution of certain locations.
By investigating mental maps over time, we can see changes in individual knowledge and gain insight into learning about their environment.
Coined in 1948 by Edward C. Tolman, the term cognitive map refers to the internal mental representation of environmental information. The broadest definition of this term is an internal model of the world in which we live. Everybody possesses his/her mental map. A mental map reflects an individual's perspectives such as the individual's perception of, beliefs of, and preferences for different places.
It is logical that our mental maps are formed over time while we are learning about the environment, primarily trough travel experience and wayfinding. It explains variation in the nature of cognitive maps between individuals.
For example, people who are shopping oriented will have more detailed image about different shopping locations in a city while people who like regularly go out and visit bars will know all cool bars with best beers. Thus mental maps are dynamic, context dependent and differ from individual to individual.
On the basis of existing theories about the structure of the cognitive map we assume that mental representation contains hierarchically organised spatial knowledge about the urban environment including landmarks and nodes, routes, configurations of routes and locations. Urban planner and author Kevin Lynch, in his most famous work The Image of the City (1960), gives the following definition of nodes and landmarks.
'Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another. …..'
'Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign, store or mountain... '
Geographers, urban planners and designers use mental maps of individuals to understand how people order the space around them. The maps can be collected by asking for directions to certain locations, by asking someone to draw a sketch map of an area of interest or by asking a person to name a certain location, etc.
For understanding how people learn and remember the city we are going to use some of these techniques and collect data about:
(i) individual's awareness of nodes and landmarks,
(ii) individual's awareness about location characteristics,
(iii) individual's knowledge about spatial distribution of certain locations.
By investigating mental maps over time, we can see changes in individual knowledge and gain insight into learning about their environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment