Investigating the Relationship Between Social and Spatial Cognitive Maps in Humans

Date
2021-07-22
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Abstract
The present study aimed to understand the relationship between social and spatial cognitive maps. Speculation on Tolman’s original idea of a cognitive map suggests that cognitive maps are not exclusive to physical spaces and may instead include social spaces as well. Participants completed 5 social questionnaires, as well as 5 spatial tasks and the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale. The results showed that participants who had more social competence, social capital, social support, and extraversion perceived themselves to be better at spatially navigating. However, their correlations with the objective spatial tasks showed that they were instead significantly poor at spatially navigating, but the effects were small. There was some discrepancy between the subjective and objective tasks and questionnaires. Overall, the results of this study show that there is a negative relationship between spatial navigation and the social questionnaires used.
Description
Keywords
Cognitive Map, Social Cognitive Map, Spatial Cognitive Map, Wayfinding, Spatial Navigation
Citation
Parmar, J. (2021). Investigating the Relationship Between Social and Spatial Cognitive Maps in Humans (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.