This document discusses environmental cognition and cognitive mapping. It begins by defining environmental cognition as the process of acquiring, storing, organizing, and recalling information about locations, distances, and arrangements in spaces. It then defines cognitive mapping as the process by which individuals acquire, code, store, and recall information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their everyday spatial environment. The document goes on to discuss cognitive maps as mental constructs of environments that integrate parts into a whole. It notes several factors that influence cognitive map formation, including age, personality, experience, and familiarity with an area. Finally, the document discusses Kevin Lynch's theory of the image of the city and his five elements of urban legibility: paths, edges, districts

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Dr. Mohamed Adel Dessouki
Environmental
Cognition
‫البيئي‬ ‫اإلدراك‬

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On the white board, draw a map of your route from your
home to Dammam University’s campus, from memory.
Include as much detail as you possibly can: street names,
landmarks, UD campus, parks, buildings and anything else
you believe is important enough to be on your map.
Focus Activity

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Last week: Environmental
Perception
• Gestalt Theory
Today: Environmental Cognition
• Cognitive Maps

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ENVIRONMENTAL COGNITION
Environmental cognition is the process of
thought that leads to:
• Acquiring, storing, organizing, recalling
information about locations, distances, and
arrangements in spaces.

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COGNITIVE MAPPING
‫اإلدراك‬ ‫خرائط‬
Cognitive mapping is a process
by which an individual acquires,
codes, stores, and recalls
information about the relative
locations and attributes of
phenomena in his everyday
spatial environment.

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COGNITIVE MAPS
• A cognitive map is the image
people have of the
surrounding environment
(real-world settings,
neighborhoods, cities,
countries, etc.)
• A cognitive map is the
mental construct of the
environment seen from
multiple viewpoints. It
integrates parts into a
whole.

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COGNITIVE MAPS

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COGNITIVE MAPS
• The way we construct cognitive
maps change individually.
• The more experience a person
has with an environment, the
better their cognitive map

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COGNITIVE MAPS
Factors influencing the formation of
Cognitive maps:
• Age
• Individual differences
– Personality
– Social and cultural background
– Education
• Gender differences
• Visual impairment
• Familiarity and experience
• Effort effects (e.g. travel time)

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COGNITIVE MAPS

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COGNITIVE MAPS
Human spatial behavior is dependent on the individual's
cognitive map of the spatial environment.
- cognitive map is a requisite both for human survival and
for everyday environmental behavior.
It is a coping mechanism through which the individual
answers two basic questions quickly and efficiently:
(1) Where certain valued things are
(2) How to get to where they are from where he is.

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WAY-FINDING
• Wayfinding is the process by which we navigate in our
environment. It is an internal psychological process, and a
sequence of problem-solving activities.
• Newcomers to an environment experience the stressful feeling
of being lost.

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WAY-FINDING
• Wayfinding depends on a system of text, graphics and
tactile information at the right time and the right place
to guide people to their destinations. It is a process that
people use to navigate unfamiliar surroundings.

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WAY-FINDING
Key Factors in better wayfinding
 Spatial Organization
 Landmarks
 Signage
 Directories
 Maps
 Color and Lighting

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“We are not simply observers of
the city but are ourselves part of
what we see. Our perception is
usually partial, fragmentary, mixed
with other concerns [..] The
environmental image is the
product both of immediate
sensation and of the memory of
past experience.”
Kevin Lynch, “The Structure of Urban
Perception”,
The Image of the City (1960)
IMAGE OFTHE CITY

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Lynch’s goal was to oppose
Modernism’s unified, placeless,
depersonalized city through
reasserting the human role in the
interpretation of the city.

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• People experience of their built environment and the
way they access it is psychological, not just physical.
• The sense of a place links elements via coherent
representations of non-spatial concepts and values.
• Anyone can ‘read’ a place, but they see different
things: comfort, identity, meaning, stimulus,
attachment ...
IMAGE OFTHE CITY

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Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to
our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our
head:
• Paths
• Edges
• Districts
• Nodes
• Landmarks
IMAGE OFTHE CITY

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Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to
our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our
head:
• Paths
• Edges
• Districts
• Nodes
• Landmarks
IMAGE OFTHE CITY

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Paths
Routes or channels
along which the
observer
customarily moves
(roads, walkways,
and public transit
routes)

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Paths
Routes or channels
along which the
observer
customarily moves
(roads, walkways,
and public transit
routes)

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Paths
Routes or channels
along which the
observer
customarily moves
(roads, walkways,
and public transit
routes)

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“Paths are the channels along
which the observer customarily,
occasionally, or potentially moves.
They may be streets, walkways,
transit lines, canals, railroads. For
many people, these are the
predominant elements in their
image. People observe the city
while moving through it, and
along these paths the other
environmental elements are
arranged and related. “
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Paths

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Edges
Linear boundaries or
barriers between two
areas, for example,
cliffs, shores of rivers,
lakes, or oceans, etc.

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Edges
Linear boundaries or
barriers between two
areas, for example,
cliffs, shores of rivers,
lakes, or oceans, etc.

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Edges

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“Edges are the linear elements not used
or considered as paths by the observer.
They are the boundaries between two
phases, linear breaks in continuity: shores,
railroad cuts, edges of development walls.
They are lateral references rather than
coordinate axes.
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Edges

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Districts
• Have a common character/theme,
made up of texture, form, space, detail,
symbol, inhabitant, topography…
• Clearly defined districts lead to ‘good’
orientation
Moderate-sized areas that city residents
identify as having a particular character

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Districts

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Districts
“Districts are the medium-to-large sections
of the city conceived as having two-
dimensional extents, which the observer
mentally enters “inside of” and which are
recognizable as having some common
identifying character.

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
“Nodes are points, the strategic spots in
a city into which an observer can enter,
and which are the intensive foci to and
from which he is traveling. They may be
primary junctions, places of a break in
transportation, moments of shift from
one structure to another.

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IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Landmarks
• Singularity, uniqueness
• Contrast (small/big, new/old)
• Symbolic
Easily viewed elements that act as
physical reference points, either
on a grand scale or on a smaller
scale

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“Landmarks are another type of point
reference, but in this case the observer
does not enter within them, they are
external. They are usually a rather simple
defined physical object: building, sign,
store, or mountain. Their use involves the
singling out of one element from a host of
possibilities. Some landmarks are distant
ones, typically seen from many angles and
distances, over the tops of smaller
elements, and used as radial references.
They may be within the city or at such a
distance that for all practical purposes they
symbolize a constant direction. Such are
isolated towers, golden domes, great hills.“
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Landmarks

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Mental
maps
Spatial
behavior
Urban
form
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Why does your image of the city matter?

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Choose at least one example to illustrate each of Kevin
Lynch's Elements of Legibility. You can choose examples
from your surrounding environment or from other sources.
Describe in your own words why did you choose each
example and how do you think it does exemplify each of
the five elements. Use your sketches and diagrams to
illustrate your answer.
You have to submit your answer on A4 sheets. Don't forget
to indicate the exact name and location of each case.

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Any Questions?