Mental map and spatial thinking

Abstract

Abstract:The spatial thinking is a central concept in our researches at the Faculty of Education of University of São Paulo (FE-USP). The cartography is fundamental to this kind of thinking, because it contributes to the development of the representation of space. The spatial representations are the drawings -mental maps -maps, chart, aerial photos, satellite images, graphics and diagrams. To think spatially -including the contents and concepts geographical and their representations -also corresponds to reason, defined by the skills the individual develops to understand the structure, function of a space, and describe your organization and relation to other spaces. The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of mental maps in the development of concepts of city and landscape -structuring concepts for school geography. The purpose is to analyze how students in Geography and Pedagogy -future teachers -and young children in Early Childhood Education think, feel, and appropriate these concepts. The analys is indicates the importance of developing mental map in activities with pedagogy and geography graduate student to know that students at school can be producers of maps. Cartography is a language and allows the student to develop the spatial and temporal relationships and notions such as orientation, distance and location, learning the concepts of geographical science. Mental maps present the basic features of the location such as the conditions -the features verified in one place -and the connections that is to understand how this place connects to other places.

Towards Visualization of Generalized Mental Maps Representations

“…When informants draw maps, they usually use more or less primitive labels and colorings for their objects. This can be seen by looking at examples of maps studied by various researchers [1,2,4,8,13,14].…”

“…It is worth noting that the terms "representation of a mental map" and "mental map" are not well-established yet, so other authors may use different terms to denote these concepts, for example "mental map" (to refer to what is here called a "mental map representation") [1,2], "cognitive map" [3], "sketch map" [4]. As a rule, it depends on the specifics of the scientific field and the preferences of the researchers.…”

Hybrid methodology of multi-sensory research of public space in urban planning

“…He introduced two-dimensional regressions and pointers to reduce the sum of position errors. Sonia Maria Vanzella Castellar and Paula Cristiane Strina Juliasz in the publication "Mental map and spatial thinking" [37] describe the issues of relations of mental maps and their reference to the real space of cartography. The publication of S. Waterman and D. Gordon "A quantitative-comparative approach to analysis of distortion in mental maps" [38] presents a quantitative procedure for the analysis and comparison of distortions in mental maps.…”

Ontology-Driven Data Mining Platform for Fuzzy Classification of Mental Maps

“…Mental maps are extensively used in social sciences as a material to elicit and analyze socio-spatial representations [4], as well as to study the human skills of understanding the structure and functions of a surrounding space [7]. For example, C. Didelon-Loiseau et al utilized mental maps to identify the regional perception of the whole world by respondents from different countries [1].…”