6.3 Cognitive maps

The sketch produced by the first leading pair – Leonard and Samuel – is given in Figure 24, and that by the second leading pair – Siti and Hashwin – is in Figure 25.  The given checkpoints were ‘interchange’, ‘big P’, ‘middle shelter’, ‘RC’, ‘no entry’, ‘cars above your head’, ‘shoot hoops’, ‘285D’, ‘letterbox’, ‘multistorey’, ‘mirror’ and ‘Naigai Nitto’.

In the present case study, Siti and Hashwin used mimetic pictograms to represent objects in the environment, such as street signs and staircases.  No such graphical elaborations are in evidence on the sketch which Leonard and Samuel produced.

These sketch maps can be compared against a satellite image of the same area (Figure 27). Examining the sketch maps that Leonard and Samuel, and Siti and Hashwin produced as they worked their way along the route illustrates a similarity in their general scale and orientation that is all the more remarkable considering that the two maps were sketched independently on separate days.

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