Mind and Maze: Spatial Cognition and Environmental Behavior

(Hardback)

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Examines spatial cognition in an interdisciplinary manner by exploring gender differences, brain architecture, and map use. In Mind and Maze: Spatial Cognition and Environmental Behavior, Ann Sloan Devlin takes the reader on a journey from the crib to the city, examining at each life phase the development of how we know where we are in space and our appreciation of spatial relationships. The author explores gender differences in spatial cognition, the parts of the brain that handle spatial relationships, and the principles that mapmakers and others use to create navigational aids, all in an effort to better identify the connection between certain behaviors and their relevance to real-world tasks. This book offers students, researchers, architects, and policy makers a fuller appreciation of spatial cognition and its impact on society. Devlin examines a fundamental aspect of human behavior, that we are animals for whom functioning in space is essential to our survival, in a uniquely interdisciplinary way. Rather than narrowly limit her focus to a specific area of psychology, she discusses spatial cognition from many perspectives from urban planning and architecture to developmental psychology and neuroscience. This book offers students, researchers, architects, and policy makers a fuller appreciation of spatial cognition and its impact on society.

Reviews

What makes this book special is Devlin's ambitious attempt to integrate basic research about human spatial abilities with practical problems of urban design and way finding in daily life. Devlin has done a service by bringing together the literature from diverse areas and integrating it into a single presentation. Highly recommended to librarie serving programs in cognitive psychology and in architecture, urban planning, etc. Upper division undergraduates and above.-Choice
"What makes this book special is Devlin's ambitious attempt to integrate basic research about human spatial abilities with practical problems of urban design and way finding in daily life. Devlin has done a service by bringing together the literature from diverse areas and integrating it into a single presentation. Highly recommended to librarie serving programs in cognitive psychology and in architecture, urban planning, etc. Upper division undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

ANN SLOAN DEVLIN received her Ph.D. in the area of environmental psychology at the University of Michigan. She is currently a professor of Psychology at Connecticut College in New London, CT, where she teaches and does research in the areas of spatial cognition and environment-behavior issues. She is on the board of directors of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and serves on the Editorial Review Board for the journal Environment and Behavior.