Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate cognitive maps constructed using different encoding processes. Different learning processes have been shown to produce cognitive maps with different characteristics. Two critical research issues are the fixed-orientation bias and the equiavailability principle. Previous research has indicated that studying a north-at-the-top cartographic map encodes a cognitive map biased in the orientation of the cartographic map. Such cognitive maps are images that have information in all parts of the map equally available. Other research has shown cognitive maps encoded by environmental navigation produced cognitive maps with no orientation bias. Subjects, however, had faster access to information in front of them than information behind them. These results suggested that exposure to a single versus multiple orientations of the spatial information explained the biases. Others have argued the two situations coincide with encoding the spatial information from secondary and primary sources. The current study considered five different learning experiences that were used to encode information about the same seven landmarks in a space. Encoding the information from three-dimensional spaces resulted in longer reaction times for an identification task. Although all learning experiences were secondary, some produced cognitive maps with orientation biases and some without. Learning experiences that provided multiple orientations eliminated an orientation bias. A single perspective oblique view learning experience appeared to produce a bias for front-back over left-right. Orientation-free higher-order cognitive maps, as described by Taylor and Tversky, could account for all these results.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bryant, D., Tversky, B., and Franklin, N. (1992). Internal and external spatial frameworks for representing described scenes. Journal of Memory and Language 31, 74–98.
Carpenter, P. and Just, M. (1986). Spatial ability: An information processing approach to psychometrics. In Advances in the Psychology of Human Intelligence (R. Sternberg, ed.), pp. 221–252. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Conerway, V. (1991). The Effects of Complexity on the Mental Rotation of Map Images. Unpublished MA Thesis, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina.
Evans, G. and Pezdek, K. (1980). Cognitive mapping: knowledge of real world distance and location information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6, 13–24.
Franklin, N., Tversky, B., and Coon, V. (1992). Switching points of view in spatial mental models. Memory and Cognition 20, 507–518.
Goldberg, J., MacEachren, A., and Kotval, X. (1992). Mental image transformation in terrain map comparisons. Unpublished manuscript.
Hintzman, D., O’Dell, C, and Arndt, D. (1981). Orientation in cognitive maps. Cognitive Psychology 13, 149–206.
Holmes, J. (1984). Cognitive processes used to recognize perspective three-dimensional map surfaces. M.A. Thesis, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina.
Kahneman, D, Treisman, A. and Gibbs, B. (1992). The Reviewing of object files: object-specific integration of information. Cognitive Psychology 24, 175–219.
Kosslyn, S. (1980) Image and Mind, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Kosslyn, S. and Koenig, O. (1992). Wet Mind, New York: The Free Press.
Levine, M. Jankovic, I., and Palij, M. (1982). Principles of spatial problems solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 111, 157–175.
Lloyd, R. (1982). A look at images. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 72, 532–548.
Lloyd, R. (1989). Cognitive mapping: encoding and decoding information. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 79, 101–124.
Lloyd, R. (1993). Cognitive processes and cartographic maps. In Behavior and Environment: Psychological and Geographical Approaches (T. Garling and R. Golledge, eds.), pp. 141–169. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Lloyd, R. and Hooper, H. (1991). Urban cognitive maps: computation and structure. The Professional Geographer 43, 15–27.
Lloyd, R. and Steinke, T. (1984). Recognition of disoriented maps: the cognitive process. The Cartographic Journal 21, 55–59.
Lowe, D. 1987. The viewpoint consistency constraint. International Journal of Computer Vision 1, 57–72.
MacEachren, A. (1992). Learning spatial information from maps: can orientation-specificity be overcome? Professional Geographer, 44, 431–443.
Muehrcke, P. (1986). Map Use: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation, Madison: JP Publications.
Neisser, U. (1976). Cognition and Reality: Principles and Implications of Cognitive Psychology, San Francisco: Freeman.
Presson, C. and Hazelrigg, M. (1984). Building spatial representations through primary and secondary learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 10, 716–722.
Presson, C, DeLange, N, and Hazelrigg, M. (1989). Orientation-specificity in spatial memory: what makes a path different from a map of a path? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 15, 887–897.
Rice, K. (1990). Distorted prism maps: a recognition experiment (abstract) Cartographic Perspectives 4, 32.
Sagi, D. and Julesz, B. 1985. “Where” and “what” in vision. Science, 228, 1217–1219.
Shepard, R. (1978). The mental image. American Psychologist 33, 125–137.
Shepard, R. and Cooper, L. (1983). Mental Images and Their Transformations, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Shepard, R. and Hurwitz, S. 1984. Upward direction, mental rotation, and discrimination of left and right turns in maps. Cognition, 18, 161–193.
Sholl, M. (1987). Cognitive maps as orienting schemata. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 13, 615–628.
Steinke, T. and Lloyd, R. (1983). Images of maps: a rotation experiment. The Professional Geographer 35, 455–461.
Taylor, H. and Tversky, B. (1992A). Descriptions and depictions of environments. Memory and Cognition 20, 483–496.
Taylor, H. and Tversky, B. (1992B). Spatial mental models derived from survey and route descriptions. Journal of Memory and Language 31, 261–292.
Throndyke, P. and Hayes-Roth, B. (1982). Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation. Cognitive Psychology 14, 560–581.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lloyd, R., Cammack, R. (1996). Constructing Cognitive Maps With Orientation Biases. In: Portugali, J. (eds) The Construction of Cognitive Maps. GeoJournal Library, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33485-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33485-1_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-3949-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-33485-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive