The Measurement of Mental Maps: An Experimental Model for Studying Conceptual Spaces

While Soviet psychologists have been directing attention for some time to the mental representation of large environments, and to problems of location, orientation, and movement within these environments, American psychologists -- strongly rooted in a behaviorist tradition -- have shied away from the same problems. Geographers interested in the emerging field of "environmental perception," however, have become concerned with the way people conceive of spaces varying in scale, topography, usage, etc. Recently, attempts have been made to "map" the characteristics of some of these mental spaces, giving rise to the term "mental maps." The model that follows is basically psychological, dealing with geographical material; it draws heavily upon the theoretical concepts and constructs of such psychologists as Kurt Lewin, ¹ E.C. Tolman, ² Jean Piaget, ³ George Miller, ⁴ Andras Angyal, ⁵ and F.N. Shemyakin. ⁶ The model attempts to establish a framework within which measurement of the behavioral outputs of mental representations 229may be given psychological and geographical meaning. It treats spaces much larger than those usually dealt with in American psychology, spaces so large that they cannot be apprehended ("perceived," in the orthodox psychological sense) at once, nor in a brief series of glances.