ABSTRACT

Throughout history, a variety of guidance instruments and materials have been available for assisting wayfinding. Regardless of the variety and range of technical aids available then and now, throughout the greatest part of human history, and even for the greatest number of trips today, people tend to use cognitive maps and cognitively stored, processed, and recalled information more than anything else to assist in wayfinding. This is partly because most trips are made in familiar or partly familiar environments. Many trips are habitual behaviors, so there is no expressed need constantly to check current position with respect to an external representation – e.g. a traditional cartographic or strip map of a route (Figure 2.2).