Abstract
To examine the process by which spatial knowledge of a university campus environment is acquired, 84 students were asked to judge differences in distance between selected campus sites using three different methods: (1) a comparative judgment; (2) magnitude estimation; and, (3) map sketching. Distances estimated were those of all two point combinations of 8 points centered on the gates and buildings of the campus, Results obtained from 46 freshmen who had entered the university four to six weeks prior to the experiment were compared with those obtained from 38 sophomore students. It was found that distances judged by the magnitude estimation and sketched map techniques were highly related to the actual physical distances and the configurations produced by multidimensional scaling (MDS) correasponded well to the actual campus configuration. Males and females were found to differ significantly in terms of subject weights on the two-dimensional INDSCAL. Response speeds for the comparative judgment task were also related to the actual physical distances. The correlation for freshmen was higher than that for sophomores and the effect of experience was found to be statistically significant on INDSCAL. Collectively, these findings suggest that knowledge of campus environments is acquired rapidly and that such knowledge is subject to modification as a result of experience in the environment.
