A New Framework for Understanding the Acquisition of Spatial Knowledge in Large-Scale Environments

People acquire knowledge about the spatial layout of the places they experience (cities, neighborhoods, buildings). This includes knowledge of locations, distances, and directions. The acquisition of this knowledge begins immediately, as soon as one arrives in a place, but presumably continues over long time periods, for months, years, and even decades. This knowledge can become quite extensive and elaborate. It provides a framework for the organization of experience and supports sophisticated spatial behavior such as creative wayfinding and direction giving. The developmental process of acquiring knowledge about the spatial layout of places over time is termed. Theoreticians from a variety of disciplines (cognitive, developmental, and environmental psychology; behavioral geography; planning and architec:ture; computer science) have attempted to describe and model spatial microgenesis. The long-dominant framework for understanding this process posits the following sequence: knowledge is initially acquired, followed by knowledge, which is followed by knowledge. In brief, according to this, landmark knowledge is knowledge of distinctive objects or scenes stored in memory. Route knowledge is knowledge of travel paths connecting landmarks. Survey knowledge is configurational knowledge of the locations and extents of features in some part of the environment that is not limited to particular travel paths. In this chapter I will reconsider the dominant framework in some detail, identify some problems with it, and offer an alternative framework that I believe is more conceptually coherent and more consistent with research evidence.