ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss explanations of the observed patterns of views and maps presented thus far. Given the paucity of reported prior applications in this field of some of the approaches adopted, the analysis proceeds using a cumulative empirical approach. As a starting point, further descriptive comparisons are made between the various groupings within the cohorts that were surveyed. The discussion reports the factors that attracted particular subgroups of students to undertake study, noting some of the inter-correlations between them and the problems of attempting to build explanatory models. Further comparisons of cognitive maps are then made, including an attempt to explain the distance measures, noting the inter-correlations between comparative formulae scores. No single simple model emerged, either when attempting to build aggregate explanatory models of formulae scores, or when considering issue-based explanations of the pair-wise distance measures. In the light of this, an attempt was made to fit a known theoretical structure, with limited success. The chapter concludes by querying the wisdom of attempting to make broader theoretical statements within the current research context.
