Residents' Spatial Knowledge of Neighborhood Continuity and Form

Abstract

This paper discusses residents' cognition of neighborhood form in terms of linear‐based and areal‐based knowledge structures. Cognitive and behavioral data are used to create surfaces of residents' familiarity with, and experience of, a neighborhood in San Diego, California. The complexity of the data required the topological and relational sophistication of an ARC / INFO‐based geographic information system. Cellular‐based data were collected to identify place‐specific measures of residents' familiarity and experience within the community. The cellular data facilitated aggregation of residents' cognitive surfaces as absolute spaces, and also relative to their homes. Spatial autocorrelation and directional autoregression techniques are used in association with standard cognitive mapping to establish the continuity and form of residents' familiarity and experience with their neighborhood. The findings suggest that there is a structural difference in the spatial familiarity of residents who perceive their neighborhood as an area and those who perceive it as a network. North‐south and east‐west street networks played an important part as the basis for both linear‐based and areal‐based knowledge, but noncardinal directions were more prominent in the familiarity surfaces of those residents who had an areal‐based perception of neighborhood form. In terms of theories of spatial knowledge acquisition, the findings suggest that (i) there may not be a direct sequential link between linear‐based and areal‐based knowledge structures, (ii) knowledge of a complex network may not be sufficient to provide areal‐based knowledge, and (iii) an areal‐based knowledge structure does not necessarily comprise an understanding of survey procedures.