Gender, Home Range and Environmental Cognition

Abstract

The paper investigates the influence of gender-related differences in home range experience upon cognitive mapping ability. The sample constituted 166 children aged between 6 and 11 from a suburban school. Each child was asked to draw a map of their journey to school and home area. Three different methods of stimulus presentation were used: free-recall sketching and the interpretation of either a large scale plan or an aerial photograph. A structured interview with every individual provided information on home range behaviour. The study confirms a growing differential between the activity spaces of boys and girls within their home area during early childhood. Strong positive relationships are found between home range behaviour and information on place and awareness of space. Discernible sex-differences are revealed in both the quantitative accretion of environmental knowledge and in the qualitative manner that children are able to externalize their mental imagery. Contrasts first appear around the middle years of early schooling at a time when boys begin to enjoy greater parental granted rights within their locality. By the age of 11 boys were able to draw maps broader in conception and more detailed in content than correspondingly aged girls. In terms of both mapping ability and map accuracy a significantly higher proportion of boys managed to depict places in a spatially coherent manner. Generalization is complicated by the method of stimulus presentation and the nature of the environment. The educational significance of the results are discussed.