Cognitive geography
Cognitive geography is an interdiscipline of cognitive science and geography, which studies maps in the mind. It is one of the studies into the foundations of geography. An important issue in cognitive geography is the cognitive map. Cognitive geography has been described as "the study of the maps in people’s minds."[1][2] It also investigates "how peoples may see their world."[3] Montello (2009) introduced the principles of cognitive geography as follows:
Cognitive geography is the study of cognition, primarily human cognition, about space, place, and environment. Cognition is knowledge and knowing by sentient entities, including humans, nonhuman animals, and artificially intelligent machines. Cognitive structures and processes include those of sensation, perception, thinking, learning, memory, attention, imagination, conceptualization, language, and reasoning and problem solving. Some of these structures and processes are consciously accessible, potentially available to awareness; others are nonconscious, outside of awareness. Cognition is functionally and experientially intertwined with affect, motivation, and behavior. Our beliefs and knowledge influence, and are influenced by, what we feel and what we do.[4]
Cognitive geography and behavioral geography draws from early behaviorist works such as Tolman's concepts of "cognitive maps". More cognitively oriented, these geographers focus on the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, decision making, and behavior. More behaviorally oriented geographers are materialists and look at the role of basic learning processes and how they influence the landscape patterns or even group identity.[5]
The cognitive processes include environmental perception and cognition, wayfinding, the construction of cognitive maps, place attachment, the development of attitudes about space and place, decisions and behavior based on imperfect knowledge of one's environs, and numerous other topics.
See also
References
- ↑ McClory R. "Listen. I can fly." Discovery YMCA 5:6-II. 1987.
- ↑ "This Week’s Citation Classic: Boulding K E. The image: knowledge in life and society. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. 1956. 175 p," in: CC/Number 28, 1988.
- ↑ Karen Sue Rolph, Stanford University. Dept. of Anthropological Sciences (2006). Ecologically meaningful toponyms: : linking a lexical domain to production ecology in the Peruvian Andes. p. 248
- ↑ Montello (2009, 160)
- ↑ Norton, W. (1997). Human geography and behavior analysis: An application of behavior analysis to the evolution of human landscapes. The Psychological Record, 47, 439–460
Further reading
- Downs, Roger M., and David Stea. Maps in minds: Reflections on cognitive mapping. HarperCollins Publishers, 1977.
- Kitchin, Rob, and Scott Freundschuh, eds. Cognitive mapping: Past, present, and future. Vol. 4. Psychology Press, 2000.
- Mark, David M., et al. "Cognitive models of geographical space." International Journal of Geographical Information Science 13.8 (1999): 747-774.
- Montello, Daniel R., et al. "Testing the first law of cognitive geography on point-display spatializations." Spatial Information Theory. Foundations of Geographic Information Science. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003. 316-331.
- Montello, Daniel R. "Cognitive geography." International encyclopedia of human geography 2 (2009): 160-166.
- Portugali, Juval, ed. The construction of cognitive maps. Vol. 32. Springer Science & Business Media, 1996.
| ||||||||||||
