Fenner, J., D. Heathcote & J. Jerrams-Smith, 2000, The development of wayfinding competency: asymmetrical effects of visual-spatial and verbal ability, in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20,
- Author : Fenner, J., D. Heathcote & J. Jerrams-Smith
- Year : 2000
- Journal/Series : Journal of Environmental Psychology
- Volume Number (CONSECUTIVE: Counting all Volumes of this Journal ever published) : 20
- Pages : 165-175
- Abstract in English : A cognitive developmental study examined the effects of Visio-spatial ability and verbal ability on wayfinding performance in young and older children. One of the outcomes is that generally the older children produced more description of objects and items that served as landmarks such as buildings, workshops, trees and hedging. The younger children recalled fewer landmarks and these were often more brightly coloured objects, e.g. large green plastic waste bins, sky blue doors etc. Most errors in the wayfinding task occurred on the route that passed a number of similar buildings, or teaching huts. Most of these were identical in design and consequently lacked distinctiveness. In term of the applied value of the current research it is clear that studies of the cognitive processes involved in wayfinding behaviour can provide urban planners with useful data with which to design the built environment rather than relying on the intuition and rule of thumb. Given that the present results suggest that both young and older children generally do not verbal processing to any great extent in wayfinding, designers of the built environment may wish to consider alternatives to the traditional verbal aids to wayfinding such as linguistic references to landmarks. KEYWORDS: environmental psychology, wayfinding, children, landmarks, landscape design.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: environmental psychology, wayfinding, children, landmarks, landscape design. UTILITY: lecturers/teachers, academic research. This study may also have implications for planting design. Wayfinding is a multi disciplinary item.