Daniel R. Montello

Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability

Abstract Environmental spatial abilities are involved in everyday tasks such as finding ones way in the environment and learning the layout of a new environment. Self-report measures of environmental abilities, e.g., asking people to rate their “sense of direction (SOD),” have been found to predict objective measures of these abilities quite highly. In this study, we developed a standardized self-report scale of environmental spatial ability, the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (SBSOD). The scale proved to be internally consistent and had good test–retest reliability. A series of four validity studies examined its relation to measures of spatial updating and acquisition of spatial knowledge at different scales and acquired from different learning experiences. These studies suggested that the SBSOD is related to tasks that require one to update location in space as a result of self-motion. It is more highly correlated with tests of spatial knowledge that involve orienting oneself within the environment than with tests that involve estimating distances or drawing maps. Self-report SOD is also somewhat more highly correlated with measures of spatial knowledge acquired from direct experience in the environment than with measures of knowledge acquired from maps, video, or virtual environments (VE).

Spatial knowledge acquisition from maps and from navigation in real and virtual environments

In this study, the nature of the spatial representations of an environment acquired from maps, navigation, and virtual environments (VEs) was assessed. Participants first learned the layout of a simple desktop VE and then were tested in that environment. Then, participants learned two floors of a complex building in one of three learning conditions: from a map, from direct experience, or by traversing through a virtual rendition of the building. VE learners showed the poorest learning of the complex environment overall, and the results suggest that VE learners are particularly susceptible to disorientation after rotation. However, all the conditions showed similar levels of performance in learning the layout of landmarks on a single floor. Consistent with previous research, an alignment effect was present for map learners, suggesting that they had formed an orientation-specific representation of the environment. VE learners also showed a preferred orientation, as defined by their initial orientation when learning the environment. Learning the initial simple VE was highly predictive of learning a real environment, suggesting that similar cognitive mechanisms are involved in the two learning situations.

Scale and multiple psychologies of space

The importance of scale to the psychology of space (perception, thinking, memory, behavior) is discussed. It is maintained that scale has an important influence on how humans treat spatial information and that several qualitatively distinct scale classes of space exist. Past systems of classification are reviewed and some novel terms and distinctions are introduced. Empirical evidence for the need to distinguish between spatial scales is presented. Some implications of these scale distinctions are briefly considered and research needs identified.

Changes in Peer and Parent Influence During Adolescence: Longitudinal Versus Cross-Sectional Perspectives on Smoking Initiation

The current study used a longitudinal design to investigate age-related changes in the magnitude of peer and parent influences on adolescent cigarette smoking. Both peer and parent influences were significant predictors of subsequent transitions to higher levels of smoking. However, unlike previous cross-sectional research, the magnitude of peer and parent influences did not significantly vary across the 6thto 1 lth-grade levels. Additional analyses were undertaken to explore possible explanations for the differences between results produced by cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. Implications for the study of transitions across the life span are discussed.

Elements of Good Route Directions in Familiar and Unfamiliar Environments

Route directions are instructions, primarily verbal, that explain how to get from one place to another. The current study examines several methods for assessing the quality of verbal route directions by characterizing them in terms of the number of elements (such as landmarks, segments or turns) and by subjective ratings of their goodness. Route directions for routes which were both familiar and unfamiliar to the participant were studied. Subjective ratings of the quality of route directions were reliable and consistent across individuals. More complete route directions were rated as being of higher quality. For all routes, inclusion of more segment and turn mentions were correlated with higher quality route directions. Good route descriptions for familiar versus unfamiliar routes differed in terms of the types of landmarks included.

Sex‐Related Differences and Similarities in Geographic and Environmental Spatial Abilities

On average, males have reliably been found to outperform females on several traditional psychometric tests of spatial ability, especially those involving a component of mental rotation. The evidence is much less clear and complete with respect to performance on larger-scale and more ecologically valid tasks generally associated with geographic investigation, such as those involved in wayfinding, map use, and place learning. In this study, a community sample of 43 females and 36 males performed a large battery of spatial and geographic tasks. The battery included psychometric tests; tests of directly acquired spatial knowledge from a campus walk; map-learning tests; tests of extant geographic knowledge at local, regional, national, and international scales; tests of object-location memory; a verbal spatial task; and various self-report measures of spatial competence and style. Both univariate means tests and multivariate discriminant analyses largely agree on a comprehensive picture of the spatial abilitie...

Updating after Rotational and Translational Body Movements: Coordinate Structure of Perspective Space

As people move through an environment, they typically change both their heading and their location relative to the surrounds. During such changes, people update their changing orientations with respect to surrounding objects. People can also update after only imagining such typical movements, but not as quickly or accurately as after actual movement. In the present study, blindfolded subjects pointed to objects after real and imagined walks. The role of rotational and translational components of movement were contrasted. The difficulty of imagined updating was found to be due to imagined rotation and not to imagined translation; updating after the latter was just as quick and accurate as updating after actual rotations and translations. Implications for understanding primary spatial orientation, the organization of spatial knowledge, and spatial-imagination processes are discussed.

Cognitive Map-Design Research in the Twentieth Century: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches

Cognitive map-design research has the goal of understanding human cognition in order to improve the design and use of maps. As a systematic sub-discipline of cartography, cognitive map-design research is a phenomenon of the twentieth century, specifically the latter half. Robinsons The Look of Maps, published in 1952, played a seminal role in the genesis of cognitive map-design research in several countries, but it had interesting precursors. Empirical work that followed from The Look of Maps included psychophysical studies of graduated circles and studies of eye movements during map reading. Theoretical work that followed included a variety of cognitive theories but especially the development of the communication model as a comprehensive framework foi˙ scientific cartography. I chart the changing fortunes of cognitive map-design research after The Look of Maps and offer explanations for these changes. I also consider the legacy of cognitive map-design research—ways in which it has or has not mattered. I conclude with a list of questions suggested, but not decisively answered, by this exploratory essay.

Integrating Knowledge of Vertically Aligned Large-Scale Spaces

The acquisition and integration of configurational knowledge of spatial layout was studied in a large building complex containing several levels. Twenty-four college students learned two separate routes by walking around the complex; the two were located one above the other, although this was not visibly apparent. Subjects were then given a description that allowed them to integrate their knowledge of the two routes. Straight-line pointing errors and latencies revealed that subjects acquired considerable configurational knowledge about each route and about their relationship, although pointing was slower and less accurate between than within routes. The study demonstrates integration of separately learned spaces in a naturalistic setting, important to theories of environmental learning. It also provides data on learning in vertically aligned spaces and further evidence of the utility of self-report sense of direction as an individual-difference measure.

Remembering Changes in Direction

Memory forturns of varying angularity encountered during pathway traversal was examined in a within-subjects design. Subjects walked eleven 8.3 m pathways, each containing one turn ranging in size from 150 to 1650 from the direction of forward motion. After each pathway traversalubjects were required to estimate the angle traversed, point to the original direction of travel, and point to the start of the pathway. Results indicated that paths containing angles near 00, 900, and 1800 from the direction of forward motion were the least disorienting and were most accurately remembered. Errors increased as angles diverged from these orthogonal coordinates. The data also revealed a pervasive tendency to estimate all angles as more like 900 than they actually were. Results were discussed in terms of hypothesized orthogonal reference axes that move through space with the observer.