Unit 2 - Section 1 - Commentary - Environmental Perception

Question 0

Environmental cognition

Answer 0

Include spatial cognition, which is how we process information about locations, distances, and arrangements in our environment to help us find our way around
- Environmental cognition mainly concerns the spatial relations between locations, the terms environmental cognition and spatial cognition are synonymous

Question 1

Environmental cognition

Answer 1

Refers to how we acquire, store, organize, and recall information about our physical environment

Question 2

Spatial cognition

Answer 2

Refers to primarily to cognitive mapping (forming mental representations of our environment), and wayfinding

Question 3

Wayfinding

Answer 3

Is a sequence of problem-solving tasks that make us use stored information about the environment

Question 4

Common ways to study spatial cognition

Answer 4

• Ask people to sketch a map, construct a scale model and estimate distances between places
• Some of these methods require a bird’s eye view

Question 5

Cognitive maps

Answer 5

The pictorial and semantic images in our heads of how places are arranged