Spatial Knowledge Acquisition in the Process of Navigation: A Review

an article by Negar Ahmadpoor (University of Nottingham, UK) and Sina Shahab (Cardiff University, UK) published in Current Urban Studies Volume 7 Issue 1 (March 2019)

Abstract

Spatial cognition has become an increasingly important area of study since it represents a major type of human knowledge with considerable practical significance.

The general assumption is that people’s spatial knowledge forms people’s spatial behaviour, such as navigation, in the environment.

However, there are some critical issues within this area, including:

• how such knowledge is represented and organised,
• the mechanisms by which it is activated, and
• the elementary and higher-level cognitive processes that function upon the knowledge base to produce new knowledge as well as the factors that are influential on acquiring spatial knowledge.

The theories regarding spatial knowledge acquisitions have attempted to address these issues.

This paper discusses these issues by reviewing the literature.

As such, the paper firstly provides the research background on spatial knowledge acquisition and the theories of spatial knowledge development. Secondly, the paper debates the main factors affecting acquiring and forming knowledge about the environment.

In doing that, the effects of two main factors are discussed:

1. the means of spatial knowledge acquisition (direct experience, physical map, and mobile maps), and
2. the role of different properties of physical environment.

Full text (PDF 19pp)

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