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.
Highlights
IntroductionWe as humans live in space and this tends to be a fact which does not require us to think about it, living in a space entails people to continuously interact with space and process the received information from the surroundings
Spatial cognition has become an increasingly important area of study since it represents a major type of human knowledge with considerable practical significance
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
Summary
We as humans live in space and this tends to be a fact which does not require us to think about it, living in a space entails people to continuously interact with space and process the received information from the surroundings. Means of spatial knowledge acquisition are the methods that individuals use to acquire spatial knowledge during their navigation It can be either direct experience of physical environment, or receiving the information from different media, such as physical maps, pictures, and mobile maps, or combination of both methods. A common focus of many studies is placed upon the effects that using these systems might have on the user’s understanding of place, and the extent to which they acquire knowledge about the environment on the basis of the information provided (Ahmadpoor & Heath, 2017) These studies will be discussed in this paper. The effects of two external 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
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