Paskins, J., 2004, Children’s understanding of their local environments, in: OPENspace, ‘Open space, people space’, OPENspace, Edinburgh
- Author : Paskins, J.
- Year : 2004
- Published in Book : Open space, people space
- Abstract in English : Children’s everyday travel is an important part of their interaction with the environment. This paper investigates the differences in cognitive maps that arise between children who are usually taken to school by car and those who usually use other modes. The detail and accuracy of children’s sketch maps of the area surrounding their school was compared. Mode of travel to school did not influence the detail included in the maps, but those who usually used the car for the journey had significantly less accurate maps than those who used other means (t = 1.946, df = 57, p = 0.0285, one-tailed). It is argued that good cognitive maps are a pre-requisite for utilising the opportunities presented by independent travel and open spaces.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: cognitive maps, children, school travel, car use. [paper 6 p.]