Cognition

Wayfinding

1. Process of getting from place to place
2. Decision making and action
3. Ability to use the conceptual model and cognitive map in goal directed behavior
4. "What to do in order to reach a place"
5. Humans are highly skilled at direction finding
6. Skill is based on exposure and experience
7. Major complaint of building users in unfamiliar places
8. Significant cause of failures in critical situations
9. Consequences of failure are great, e.g. fear, stress, missed opportunities, presentation of self, self concept

Examples of Cognitive Maps

Cognitive Map Features

1. Networks: districts, edges, grids
2. Points: landmarks, nodes
3. Lines: paths, edges
4. Levels of scale
5. Multiple connections - "City is Not a Tree"
6. Information is both geographic and value laden
7. Values - positive, negative, comparison
8. Relationships - proximity, sequence, relative size

Cognitive Mapping Process

M = f(PL, PE, E, S)

where:

PL = place (imageability)

PE= person

E = exposure

S = significance

1. Significance creates the "foreground world"
2. From data to knowledge
3. Incompleteness and inaccuracies
4. Foreground/background worlds - salience and selection
5. Meaning as significance - cultural, social and personal
6. Exposure - length of exposure, familiarity, freedom to explore
7. Imageability of place - "spatial affordances"
   • strong physical features, e.g. landmarks, nodes, edges, paths, districts
   • activity
   • complexity
   • "good form"
   • alignment to abstract reference systems
   • stability

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