The World in Their Minds: A Multi-scale Approach of Children’s Representations of Geographical Space - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 231

map of continents composition (test 2) and their Sun-Earth-Moon reproduction
(test 3).
On the face of it geographical space obviously holds a physical dimension as in
landscape elements e.g. trees, buildings, roads

However, the required cognitive
structures or mental maps needed to understand spatial relationships are to be
located in psychological space. Still, question remains where exactly to locate
geographical space within psychological space. Remark in that respect that in
both attempts to describe geographical space mentioned above (Downs and Stea
1977; Mark et al. 1999 ) scale naturally seems to appear. Montello ( 1993 ) indeed
found that scale has an important influence on how humans treat spatial information
and elaborated, building on previous research, a categorization of psychological
space especially useful for this research because it contains “geographical space” as
one of the four categories. He argues that space is not scale independent and
therefore bases the categorization on scale differences. His four categories
depending on a person's point of view are:

...

1. Figural space —smaller than the body and can be subdivided in

￿ Pictorial space, small flat spaces
￿ Object space, small 3D spaces

2. Vista space —larger than the body but visually apprehensive from a single place
3. Environmental space —surrounding the body, too large to apprehend without
considerable locomotion and integration of information over significant periods
of time
4. Geographical space —much larger than the body, not apprehensive through
locomotion but via symbolic representations such as maps or models

Attention must be drawn to the fact that although maps are representations of
environmental and geographical spaces, they themselves are part of the figural
space considering maps can be studied without moving. Returning now to the
question where to position geographical space, conclusion appears to be that
although it is psychological and physical the largest space, it can't be mentally
structured without small symbolic representations (physical space) inherent to the
psychological figural space such as maps, aerials ... (pictorial space) or 3D-models

(object space).
Because learnt through daily travel experience and maps or images of the
neighbourhood, children's route maps from home to school (test 1) contain an
environmental and a figural spatial dimension. Therefore, assuming that by the age
of nine children will have explored a map or aerial, the mental maps—from which
the route maps are derivatives—are placed in the geographical space as well as in
the environmental space or better still in the transition zone between the environ-
mental and geographical space. The construction of a coherent mental map of the
world (test 2) typically educated through maps and globes obviously concerns
geographical space. When developing a correct image of the Sun-Earth-Moon
system (test 3) one could argue that we reach the ends, if they already existed, of