Abstract
Japan is prone to frequent natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods. To prepare for these unpredictable events, individuals must take responsibility for their own safety and well-being. Therefore, disaster education is implemented in elementary schools, often involving the use of hazard maps for learning. However, during actual disasters, individuals may not have access to maps and must rely on their memory to evacuate to safety. In such situations, people depend on their cognitive maps to guide their actions. However, cognitive maps of children are considered less developed compared to those of adults. Understanding the developmental process of cognitive maps in elementary school students is crucial as it can provide valuable information for creating effective hazard maps. Therefore, it is essential to elucidate the developmental process of cognitive maps in elementary school students.
In this study, we surveyed cognitive maps of fifth-grade elementary school students to investigate the development of their cognitive maps. The results revealed that compared to adults, these students displayed lower rates of remembering important landmarks and lacked specific details in their maps. However, we also observed the initiation of global memory, as evidenced by their awareness of the relationship between the surveyed area and its surroundings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Hart, R.A., Moore, G.T.: The development of spatial cognition: a review. In: Downs, R.M., Stea, D. (eds.) Image and Environment, pp. 246–288. Aldine, Chicago (1973)
Siegel, A.W., White, S.H.: The development of spatial representations of large-scale environments. Adv. Child Dev. Behav. 10, 9–55 (1975)
Lynch, K.: The Image of the City. The M.I.T. Press (1960)
Shemyakin, F.N., et al.: General problems of orientation in space and space representation. Psychol. Sci. USSR 1, 184–225 (1962)
Iwamoto, H.: The imaginary environment of “community” in a children’s mind. Assoc. Jpn. Geograph. 54(3), 127–141 (1981) in Japanese
Montello, D.R.: A new framework for understanding the acquisition of spatial knowledge in largescale environment. In: Golledge, R.G., Egemhofer, M.J. (eds.) Spatial and Temporal Reasoning in Geograohic Information Systems, pp. 143–154 (1998)
Tani, N.: A transromation of image map from route-map type to survey-map type. Jpn J. Educ. Psychol. 23(3), 192–201 (1890)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Oka, M., Komura, Y., Mori, H. (2023). A Study on Qualitative Comparison of Mental Maps Between Elementary School Students and Adults. In: Zaphiris, P., et al. HCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Papers. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14060. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48060-7_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48060-7_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48059-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-48060-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)