Abstract
This is an experimental study to investigate cognitive process in persons to the urban space, while their wayfinding changes by three repetition learning in grid network of streets. The results are summarized as follows. 1)"Visual-Organization" of spatial knowledge acquired by direct perception from a horizontal viewpoint is done at a comparatively early stage as far as the cognitive process is concerned."Sign-Organization", symbolized by reconstructing the spatial knowledge with one's inner mentality, cannot be perceived as quickly from a bird's-eye viewpoint, which is more delayed than "Visual-Organization". The result of cluster analysis, which does not have to do with behavioral factors but with mental factors such as cognition or organization, strongly influences the main factor determining the cognitive process as related to urban space. 2) Based on the cognitive process shown previously, the following changes were shown: (1) The distance concept about the shortest course distance to a target point changes from a functional distance concept to a cognitive. (2) The form of wayfinding behaviors changes the uniform behavioral pattern based on a mental standard such as a functional or cognitive distance related to the various behavioral patterns that have been tried and erred, with each characteristic based on individual difference. (3) As for the strategy for a target point attainment, the tendency to perceive a sense of direction as being important becomes stronger as one approaches the target point.
