The Cognitive Map of a City: Fifty Years of Learning and Memory

Abstract

This chapter presents a research that describes the acquisition of spatial information about a city during a four-year period of residence and the subsequent loss of this information over a period of 46 years. This is a study of long-term memory. The chapter presents the administration of five subtests, which yield 23 indicants of knowledge. The interrelations among these indicants provide a broad view of the available spatial information. The method of cross-sectional adjustment is used to compensate for the lack of control over the variables of acquisition and rehearsal. The acquisition data for most indicants show that more knowledge is gained during the first three weeks of residence than during the later periods of comparable length. After the first three weeks, street names and locations are learned at an even rate of about 2–3 streets per academic year without diminution at the end of four years. This rate is approximately the same for indicants of free recall, verbally or visually cued recall, or matching tests and includes the indicants of verbal and spatial knowledge. Intercorrelations among all indicants of performance are calculated at the five stages of learning. When performance is stabilized, these intercorrelations reflect primarily the nature of the knowledge and scoring system, but during the acquisition process, the correlations reflect individual differences in the speed of learning. The result is a family of contour retention curves reflecting the estimated effect of changes in one rehearsal variable on the particular indicant of retention.