Scaling techniques for modeling directional knowledge

D. Waller, Daniel Haun

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    A common way for researchers to model or graphically portray spatial knowledge of a large environment is by applying multidimensional scaling (MDS) to a set of pairwise distance estimations. We introduce two MDS-like techniques that incorporate people’s knowledge of directions instead of (or in addition to) their knowledge of distances. Maps of a familiar environment derived from these procedures were more accurate and were rated by participants as being more accurate than those derived from nonmetric MDS. By incorporating people’s relatively accurate knowledge of directions, these methods offer spatial cognition researchers and behavioral geographers a sharper analytical tool than MDS for studying cognitive maps.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)285-293
    Number of pages9
    JournalBehavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers
    Volume35
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - May 2003

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Scaling techniques for modeling directional knowledge'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this