TY - JOUR
T1 - Just down the road a piece
T2 - The development of topological knowledge of building layouts
AU - Haq, Saif
AU - Zimring, Craig
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2003/1
Y1 - 2003/1
N2 - This study explores whether people's topological knowledge changes as they get to know a setting. Volunteers (n = 128) performed open and directed searches in three large hospitals. In open searches the participants attempted to become familiar with the hospital; in directed searches they sought specific locations. The participants also performed various cognitive tasks such as pointing and sketch mapping. During initial exploration, they relied more on local topological qualities, such as how many additional nodal decision points could be seen from a given node. As they got to know the setting better, their wayfinding behavior was better predicted by more global qualities such as the space syntax integration of a node. This suggests that people rapidly move from a local to a more global topological understanding as they learn a setting. In addition, space syntax measures were good predictors of the participant's ability to point to out-of-sight locations and of their sketch maps.
AB - This study explores whether people's topological knowledge changes as they get to know a setting. Volunteers (n = 128) performed open and directed searches in three large hospitals. In open searches the participants attempted to become familiar with the hospital; in directed searches they sought specific locations. The participants also performed various cognitive tasks such as pointing and sketch mapping. During initial exploration, they relied more on local topological qualities, such as how many additional nodal decision points could be seen from a given node. As they got to know the setting better, their wayfinding behavior was better predicted by more global qualities such as the space syntax integration of a node. This suggests that people rapidly move from a local to a more global topological understanding as they learn a setting. In addition, space syntax measures were good predictors of the participant's ability to point to out-of-sight locations and of their sketch maps.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037229126&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0013916502238868
DO - 10.1177/0013916502238868
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037229126
VL - 35
SP - 132
EP - 160
JO - Environment and Behavior
JF - Environment and Behavior
SN - 0013-9165
IS - 1
ER -