A major reason for the lack of an adequate theoretical base underlying research into migration is because many studies to date have neglected the behavioural aspects of the decision-making process. This study of a group of intra-urban migrant households in an unfamiliar environment examines the effect of selected variables on the learning process and formation of an individual's cognitive representation, and the way in which spatial biases in the overt patterns of behaviour are manifested as a function of this intervening behavioural process. The results from the study clearly demonstrate that initial location in a previously unknown urban environment, length of time for learning to take place, and ethnic status are factors which influence the formation of an individual's cognitive frame of reference, and are reflected in overt patterns of relocation behaviour in space. These findings support the proposition that an adequate explanation of the migration process and patterns of behaviour in space will eventuate only when the role of behavioral considerations in the human decisionmaking process are more clearly defined and understood. While much of the emphasis in the wealth of literature relating to migration has been on examining migration patterns in terms of structural variables, such as age selectivity, educational and occupational differentials, there has been a lack of concern with the behavioural processes, such as learning and attitude formation, which influence the relationship between people and their environment. This neglect has induced researchers in the past to make considerable, possibly unwarranted, inferential leaps in providing explanations of human behaviour in space (Golledge, 1970). This paper seeks to demonstrate the importance of incorporating behavioural considerations in an explanation of relocation patterns of intra-urban migrant households in an unfamiliar environment. In particular, this study attempts to identify the extent to which initial location in space, length of time, and ethnic differences affect the learning process and formation of an individual's cognitive representation, and the way in which spatial biases in overt patter s of behaviour are manifested as a function of this intervening behavioural process.