Qualitative aspects of cognitive distance in urban space in relation to daily movement behavior

A case study of university students in Kanazawa

Abstract

This study investigates qualitative aspects of cognitive distance in urban space. Data used in this study were obtained from 181 university students in Kanazawa City. Analysis of the relationship between the context of daily movement behavior, qualitative cognitive distance reveals that action space in the city is divided ‛close phase' visited frequently and contacted directly and ‛far phase' rarely visited or contacted. These two spaces are metaphorically related to the dichotomy of small-scale space between ‛the space that can be reached by a limb' and ‛the space that can be seen but not reached'.