Acquisition of cognitive maps through product search trials and cognitive aging:

An investigation by a map drawing task after product search tasks in a retail store

Abstract

Few research has focused on product search process in shopping behavior, and in particular, its relations to cognitive aging have not been examined yet. In this study, we conducted an experimental task of searching for multiple products one by one in an actual supermarket store with older and younger adults. This presentation reports the in-store map drawing task that was conducted after the searching tasks. A quantitative analysis using the Gardony Map Drawing Analyzer (Gardony et al., 2016) and a qualitative analysis of map features were applied. Results showed that although there were some differences in the accuracy of the map drawing between two age groups, both the older and younger adults exhibited high performance in drawing a map. In addition, only younger adults included the drawing of shelves, which sometimes appeared with categorical labels. The relationship between these results and the processes in product search task will be discussed.