Image and Environment: Cognitive Mapping and Spatial Behavior

by David Stea

Overview

Cognitive mapping is a construct that encompasses those processes that enable people to acquire, code, store, recall, and manipulate information about the nature of their spatial environment. It refers to the attributes and relative locations of people and objects in the environment, and is an essential component in the adaptive process of spatial decision-making—such as finding a safe and quick route to from work, locating potential sites for a new house or business, and deciding where to travel on a vacation trip.

Cognitive processes are not constant, but undergo change with age or development and use or learning. Image and Environment, now in paperback, is a pioneer study. It brings a new academic discipline to a wide audience. The volume is divided into six sections, which represent a comprehensive breakdown of cognitive mapping studies: "Theory"; "Cognitive Representations"; "Spatial Preferences"; "The Development of Spatial Cognition"; "Geographical and Spatial Orientation"; and "Cognitive Distance." Contributors include Edward Tolman, James Blaut, Stephen Kaplan, Terence Lee, Donald Appleyard, Peter Orleans, Thomas Saarinen, Kevin Cox, Georgia Zannaras, Peter Gould, Roger Hart, Gary Moore, Donald Griffin, Kevin Lynch, Ulf Lundberg, Ronald Lowrey, and Ronald Briggs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202307664
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	03/31/2005
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Roger M. Downs is head of the Department of Geography at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Bristol in 1970 and has also taught geography and environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

David Stea is professor of geography and planning at Southwest Texas State University and Enrique A. Aragon Distinguished Professor at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1964 and has also taught at the U.S. International University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UCLA, Clark University, Brown University, and Stanford University.

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993) was professor of economics at the University of Colorado and president of many scholarly associations including the American Economic Association, the Society for General Systems Research, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He authored numerous books including Towards a New Economics: Critical Essays on Ecology, Distribution, and Other Themes; Three Faces of Power; and The World as a Total System.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD BY KENNETH BOULDING, PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, CONTRIBUTORS, I. THEORY, 1. Cognitive Maps and Spatial Behavior: Process and Products, 2. Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men, 3. Notes Toward a Developmental Theory of Spatial Learning, 4. Cognitive Maps in Perception and Thought, II. COGNITIVE REPRESENTATIONS, 5. Psychology and Living Space, 6. Notes on Urban Perception and Knowledge, 7. Differential Cognition of Urban Residents: Effects of Social Scale on Mapping, 8. How Citizens View Two Great Cities: Milan and Rome, 9. Student Views of the World, 10. Designative Perceptions of Macro-Spaces: Concepts, a Methodology, and Applications, III. SPATIAL PREFERENCE, 11. On Mental Maps, IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL COGNITION, 12. Some Preliminary Observations on Spatial Learning in School Children, 13. The Black Boxes of Jônkôping; Spatial Information and Preference, 14. The Development of Spatial Cognition: A Review, V. GEOGRAPHICAL AND SPATIAL ORIENTATION, 15. Topographical Orientation, 16. Some References to Orientation, VI. COGNITIVE DISTANCE, 17. Emotional and Geographical Phenomena in Psychophysical Research, 18. A Method for Analyzing Distance Concepts of Urban Residents, 19. Urban Cognitive Distance, EPILOGUE, BIBLIOGRAPHY, NAME INDEX, INDEX OF PLACE NAMES, SUBJECT INDEX

Editorial Reviews

If one wants to know about cognitive mapping and cognitive maps, this is an excellent place to turn. The 19 contributions are carefully selected, the editors do a find job of drawing threads together.” —Brian J. L. Berry, American Journal of Sociology “[I]f you want to know how people in other disciplines are thinking about the intriguing relations among image, space, and behavior, I highly recommend this book.” —Miles Richardson, American Anthropologist “For their work Downs and Stea deserve nothing but praise…. This is… a volume to which those in the growing field of environment-and-behavior will turn frequently, as much from necessity as for enjoyment and profit.” —Joachim F. Wohlwill, Science

From the Publisher