Clusters and reference points in cognitive representations of the environment

Abstract

The study examined the roles of hierarchical clusters and reference points in individuals' mental representations of their environment. Cluster analyses were performed on the subjects' self-produced building lists to determine how they subdivided the university campus and a series of rating scales was used to determine which of their buildings acted as reference points. In keeping with the assumption that cluster inclusion is used as a source of information in making distance judgements, subjects gave larger distance estimates for cross-cluster than for within-cluster building pairs. The prediction that subjects would make larger estimates when judging the distance to a reference point vs from a reference point was not substantiated by the data, however, two other results supported the role of reference points in drawing together categories: due to their strong ties with numerous locations, reference points entered subjects' hierarchies relatively late; and subjects made more accurate building placements when given reference anchors. Sex differences in accuracy on the various spatial judgements led to the suggestion that females were more dependent upon clustering and reference points than were males.